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This Volume is for
REFERENCE USE ONLY
Through tHe Stereoscope
A JOURNEY ACROSS THE LAND
OF THE CZAR FROM FINLAND
TO THE BLACK SEA
PERSONALLY CONDUCTED BY
M. S. EMERY
AUTHOR OF "HOW TO ENJOY PICTURES '
PUBLISHED BY
UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
NEW YORK LONDON
OTTAWA, KAN. TORONTO, CAN.
Copyright, 1901, by
UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
New York and London
[Entered at Stationers' Hall]
Stereographs copyrighted in the United States
and foreign countries
MAP SYSTEM
Patented in the United States, August 21, 1900
Patented in Great Britain, March 22, 1900
Patented in France, March 26, 1900, S. G. D. G.
Switzerland, + Patent Number 21,211
Patents applied for in other countries
All rights reserved
C; \ \ A ." i
TABLE OP V CONTENTS.
PAGES.
The Story of Russia 7
A Word Before Starting- 21
ITINERARY.
1. Helsingfors, the Capital City of Finland 35
2. Market Boats, Helsingfors 37
3. Norra Ksplanad-Gatan , Helsingfors 39
4. A Forest in Finland 40
5. Imatra Falls, Finland 42
6. Saima Canal, Lavola, Finland 44
7. Market-Place, Viborg-, Finland 45
S. Nevsky Prospect, St. Petersburg 48
9. Monument of Catherine II and Alexandra Theatre, St. Petersburg- ... 51
10. Allegorical Statue Man Conquering the Brute Fontanka Bridge, St.
Petersburg 52
11. Bolschaya Morskaya, St. Petersburg 56
12. Monument to Alexander I and Staab Building-, St. Petersburg 57
13. The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg 59
14. Peristyle of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg: 62
15. Gallery of Modern Sculpture, the Hermitage, St. Petersburg ...... 62
16. Imperial Summer Garden, St. Petersburg 63
17. Statue of Peter the Great, St. Petersburg 65
iS. St. Isaac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg 68
19. St. Petersburg from the Roof of St. Isaac's 73
20. Admiralty Building, University and Vasilii Ostrof, St. Petersburg .... 75
21. Barracks, Synod, Academy and VasilSI Ostrof, St. Petersburg 78
22. St. Catherine Church and Holy Water Procession, St. Petersburg .... ST
23. Blessing the Waters of the Neva, St. Petersburg 83
24. Palace Bridge, Admiralty and St. Isaac's, from the Exchange, St. Peters-
burg 85
25. Bourse Place, Vasilii Ostrof, St. Petersburg 86
26. Exchange Building, St. Petersburg 90
27. Burial-Place of the Czars, Fortress of Peter-and-Paul, St. Petersburg . . . 91
28. Making Hay in Russia 94
29. Avenue of Fountains, Peterhof 97
30. Peterhof Palace 98
31. Equipages before Peterhof Palace 99
32. The Fountains, from Peterhof Palace 100
a DDDI am
PAGES.
33. The Empresses of Russia and G^niJai^Driving 1 through Peterhof Park . 101
34. Narcissus Fountain, PeterhofParkL?* ,* 102
35. Russian Imperial Guard on Pete'rhof *Pfer 103
36. Yacht Alexandria Conveying the German Emperor 104
37. Visit of the Emperor and Empress of Germany to the Alexander Hospi-
tal, St. Petersburg- 106
38. Czar of Russia and President of France Laying the Corner-stone of the
Troitsky Bridge, St. Petersburg 109
39. Soldiers' Church, with Monument of Turkish Cannons, St. Petersburg . 113
40. Alexander Palace, Tsarskoe Sel6 115
41. Largest of the Imperial Palaces, Tsarskoe Selo 116
42 Lake and Island in the Imperial Grounds, Tsarskoe Seld 118
43. The Czar at Krasnoe Selo 119
44. Review of Troops by the French President, Krasnoe Selo 119
45. Foreign Representatives at the Military Review, Krasnoe Seld 121
46. The Czar, Czarina and President Faure, Krasnoe Seld 122
47. Moscow from the Sparrow Hills , 125
48. Novo Devitchi Convent, near Moscow 126
49. Temple of Our Saviour, Moscow 128
50. The Chief Altar, Temple of Our Saviour, Moscow 130
51. Holy Moscow, North from the Temple of Our Saviour 131
52. Moscow, South-east from the Temple of Our Saviour 133
53. The Moskwa River and the Shimmering Spires of Holy Moscow .... 134
54. " 'Tis the Kremlin Wall ; 'tis Moscow, the Jewel of the Czars." 135
55. The Kremlin, Moscow .... 138
56. The Kremlin Wall and Tower of the Sacred Gate, Moscow 142
57. Spaski Vorota (Sacred Gate of the Kremlin), Moscow . 143
58. Voznesenski Devitchi (Ascension Convent), Moscow 145
59. Ivan Tower and Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, Moscow . ; . . 147
60. The King of Bells, Kremlin, Moscow 150
61. Holy Moscow, from the Ivan Tower r 52
62. Cathedral of the Assumption, Moscow 154
63. Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow 155
64. The Great Czar Cannon, Moscow 3:57
65. The Great Bazaar in the Kitai Gorod, Moscow . 159
66. Central Entrance to the Great Bazaar 160
67. Historical Museum and the Resurrection Gate, Moscow 161
68. Market in the Kitai Gorod, Moscow 162
69. Romanoff House, Moscow 164
70. Rumiantsof Museum. Moscow 165
71. Petrofski Imperial Palace, Moscow 166
72. The Great Sunday Market of Moscow 168
73. Church of the Nativity, Moscow , . . . 169
74. Nijni Novgorod, the Summer Market-Place of the Nations 171
ITINERARY. 5
PAGES.
75. Interior of the Church of the Nativity, Nijiii Novgorod 173
76. Floating Bridge Over the Oka, Nijni Novgorod 175
77. The Fair, Nijni Novgorod . ' i/7
78. One of trie Busy Streets of the Fair, Nijni Novgorod 178
79. Cloth Market at the Fair, Nijni Novgorod 180
50. Chinese Row, in the Market of All Nations, Nijni Novgorod iSr
51. Siberian Hides and Village of the Tartars, Nijni Novgorod 183
82. A Characteristic Country House in the Heart of Russia 184
83. Pi incipal Street of Ancient Kief 189
84. Alexandrofski Slope and the Dnieper, Kief 190
85. St. Vladimir Monument and the Dnieper, Kief 192
86. The Podol of Ancient" Kief 192
87. The Milkmaids of Kief .* 194
88. The Fairy-land of Little Russia 195
89. Vladimir Cathedral, Kief 198
90. "The Birth of Jesus," Vladimir Cathedral, Kief 200
91. " The Resurrection," Vladimir Cathedral, Kief 202
92. Richelieu Street, Odessa , 205
93. Opera House, Odessa 207
94. Cathedral, Odessa * 208
95. Interior of the Cathedral, Odessa 209
96. The Great Staircase, Odessa 210
97. Wheat for Export, Odessa 211
98. The Salt Fields of Solinen 212
99. Turning Up the Salt, Solinen 213
loo. The Black Sea, from the Russian Coast 215
LIST OF MAPS.
ALL BOUND IN BOOKLF.T AT
END OF THIS VOLUME.
I. General Map of Russia and Southern Finland.
II. Helsingfors, Finland.
III. St. Petersburg.
IV. Central Part of St. Petersburg-: detail of Map III.
V. St. Petersburg and Its Environs.
VI. Peterhof.
VII. General Map of Moscow.
VIII. The Kremlin, Moscow.
IX. Nijni Novgorod.
X. Kief.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
THE 5TORY OF RUSSIA, IN BRIEF.
The legends of ancient peoples have a charm for us all.
But quite as fascinating in their own way are the mingled remi-
niscences and prophecies of a pioneer in a new country, a man
who has himself seen the beginnings of local history, and who
at the same time looks ahead to greater things coming. It is
partly just this intimate mingling of retrospect and outlook which
gives its peculiar relish to American life. Perhaps it is by reason
of our recognition of her national youth, like and yet so unlike
our own, that makes Russia today one of the most interesting
lands and the Russian one of the most interesting people in
the world. For Russian history is essentially just beginning.
The chronicles of Russia's rise out of semi-Asiatic barbarism
are only the preface to a book with most of its pages still blank.
The Czar today rules over one-seventh of the whole world,
the autocrat of more than one hundred and thirty million sub-
jects. His nation is like a vigorous young giant, the child of
fierce, rough ancestors, a giant with a mind of his own, not
wholly understood by the European mind in general, a giant
who can do most things, who certainly will do many things, and
whose purposeful movements are being watched with eager
curiosity and speculation by all the rest of the world.
The little history which Russia has thus far had time to
write throws an interesting light on the present and the future
of her remarkable people.
Russia Before Peter the Great.
The earliest traceable ancestors of the Russian people were
Slavonians who migrated from some Asiatic region into eastern
Europe about twenty-four hundred years ago. For many cen-
turies they kept up roving habits, and it was not until the fifth
8 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
century that they made settlements of any permanent importance.
These were on the sites of the present Novgorod the Great and
Kief. In the ninth century, Rurik, a pagan prince of Scandinavia,
conquered the scattered tribes of Russia and established a rude
monarchical government at Novgorod. Near the close of the
tenth century, Vladimir, the seventh ruler in descent from Rurik,
embraced Christianity, and brought architects from Greece and
Constantinople to build churches for the new worship. He was
afterwards canonized by the Russo-Greek Church and is now a
favorite saint. Yaroslaf, the son of Vladimir, continued his
father's efforts to extend Christianity among the scattered people,
and to develop some national regard for the arts of peace. To
him credit is due for the first code of laws compiled for the
kingdom.
In the thirteenth century, Russia was invaded by a horde of
savage Tartars from central Asia, under the leadership of the
chieftain Genghis Khan. The Swedes, Danes and Poles also
made successive attacks on their harassed Russian neighbors,
and internal dissensions between the petty principalities of Nov-
gorod, Kief, Vladimir and Moscow made wretched the intervals
between foreign invasions. For three hundred years the land
was ravaged by wars, pestilence and famine. One of the heroes
of these old days was Prince Alexander, the son of Yaroslaf II
of Novgorod, who in the thirteenth century fought the combined
forces of the Swedes, Danes and Livonians on the banks of the
Neva river. He was thereafter known as Alexander Nevsky
(Alexander of the Neva), and after his death he too became a
saint in the Russian calendar.
Ivan (John) I, in the fourteenth century, expended large
sums in building the city of Moscow ; and about the middle of the
century, under Ivan II, Moscow became the established and recog-
nized capital of the country, Ivan III married a Greek princess
from Constantinople, and this marriage added to the imperial
coat of arms the double-headed eagle which is still the national
emblem. But repeated invasions of Tartars and civil wars carried
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 9
on by rival claimants to the throne prevented anything like steady
development of a national life. It was not until the middle of the
sixteenth century that the Tartars were finally routed and their
domination destroyed. Ivan IV, the first Russian monarch to
bear the title of Czar, in 1552, besieged and captured Kazan, the
chief stronghold of the Tartars, and took their Khan prisoner.
Besides, he made war on Poland and the Baltic province of
Livonia, and defeated Gustavus Vasa of Sweden in a battle near
Viborg in Finland. Ivan the Terrible, as he was called, was
famous for his fierce temper and for acts of savagery conspicuous
in an age when Europe was not easily shocked by any exercise
of power in high places; but the fact that he drove out the de-
tested Tartars suffices in loyal Russian eyes to cover his personal
sins. Tradition says he did, in the end, repent the ghastly
severities with which his reign was stained, and that he retired
to a monastery, assuming the* garb of a religious penitent.
Serfdom was definitely established in Russia by the Czar
Boris in 1597, when an imperial edict forbade peasants to leave
the land on which they were at a certain date.
In 1613, at the close of a costly but victorious war with
Poland, the succession of the old dynasty of Rurik came to an
end, the line of descent being hopelessly lost. A national conven-
tion was called, and this convention elected as Czar a youth of
sixteen named Michael Romanoff, the heir of an ancient and
noble family; and all the Czars since that time have been in
the line of Michael's descendants, scions of the house of Ro-
manoff. During Michael's reign the country was again involved
in devastating wars with Poland and Sweden, but peace was
brought about by the mediation of England, France and Hol-
land. The Russian army itself was reorganized by Michael, on
the model of the then-existing armies of France and Germany.
A son (Alexis) and then a grandson (Theodore III) of the Czar
successively . occupied the throne after Michael's death in 1645.
In 1682, Ivan V, the brother of Theodore III, and Peter, a half-
brother (son of Alexis by another wife), were crowned" joint
10 KUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
heirs to the kingdom under the regency of their older sister
Sophia. In 1689, Ivan V, having found himself unequal to the
cares of state, resigned his share in the government, and, Sophia
having been banished on the charge of inciting revolts among
the national troops, Peter became, at the age of seventeen, the
master of the empire.
Russia Since the Accession of Peter the Great.
It has been said that Peter the Great did not merely develop
Russia. He created Russia. He is one of the most interesting
figures in modern history, for it is largely due to his shrewd
foresight, his almost superhuman energy and his dogged per-
sistency in both military and constructive undertakings that
Russia owes her present place among the nations.
Peter's foremost ambition was /or the extension and unifica-
tion of the empire. His first military movements against the
Turks at Azof, and against the Swedes under Charles XII at
Narva were failures, but, as he philosophically observed, his
enemies taught him how to conquer. In 1696, he took Azof from
the Turks ; then, having a good seaport but no ships to sail from
it, he took two years for work and observation, chiefly in Hol-
land and England, where he personally learned all the details of
ship-building as it was then practiced, working with his own
hands like any common apprentice. A rebellion arose among his
troops in 1698, but he took summary measures to put it down;
and, having lost Azof to the Turks, he undertook new wars with
Sweden in order to obtain sea-coast on the Baltic. This time he
was successful, and large districts were added to Russia by the
terms he obtained through the treaty of Nystad.
It was in 1703 that he founded the city of St. Petersburg on
the Neva, sending workmen there by thousands from different
parts of the empire, and actually creating a new national capital
where there had been only a swampy morass. All the stone used
in constructing breakwaters, wharves, buildings and streets was
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. II
carried there for the purpose. Large numbers of Russian nobles
and merchants were summoned to take up their residence in the
new city.
Various new ideas brought home by the Czar from western
Europe were energetically put into execution. He built a small
navy, and drilled his men in seamanship and in all sorts of trades
connected with boat building and with navigation. He con-
structed canals. He established schools. He inaugurated entirely
new court customs, requiring the attendance of ladies at court
functions, from which they had previously been excluded in
semi-Oriental fashion. He made government officials shave their
long, Asiatic beards and wear European dress. He even revised
the Russian alphabet. Almost every inch of ground in St. Peters-
burg is in one way or another associated with stories of his
immense energy in re-making the country and the people.
Peter was succeeded by his widowed second wife, the Em-
press Catherine I, and Catherine by Peter II, a grandson of Peter
the Great by way of his first wife Eudoxia. The death of Peter
II ended the direct male succession of the house of Romanoff,
and the next ruler (1730) was a niece of the great Peter, the
Empress Anne, daughter of Ivan V, the half-brother of Peter,
who had shared the throne for a time and then resigned his share
in the joint government. In 1732, Anne removed the seat of
government from St. Petersburg to Moscow. During her reign
wars were carried on with the Poles, resulting in the capture of
Dantzig, and with the Turks, resulting in the retention of Azof
and the giving up to Turkey the Moldavian provinces. Count
Biren, a favorite of the Empress, was left, on her death, regent
during the minority of her grand-nephew, Ivan VI, then a young
child; but Biren's personal unpopularity brought the country to
the brink of a revolution. The mother of the child Ivan VI
became regent in his stead; but this second regency was also
unsatisfactory, and in 1741, Elizabetn, a daughter of Peter
the Great, was proclaimed Empress. Elizabeth established the
Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, and in various ways im-
12 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
proved her father's favorite city; but wars with Prussia and
Sweden were a constant drain on the resources of the country,
and the social condition of the empire was a curious mixture
of courtly elegance and primitive barbarity.
Elizabeth's nephew, Peter III (son of Anne, the eldest daugh-
ter of Peter the Great), succeeded to the throne in 1762. He
made peace with Prussia, established various needed modifica-
tions of the customs duties, and founded a bank for money-
lending, but he had no hold on popular feeling. His widow, who
succeeded him as Catherine II, was a woman of remarkable force
of character and executive ability. She is often called Catherine
the Great, and her reign from 1762 to 1796 was full of important
movements and developments for the strengthening of the Rus-
sian empire.
Wars with the Turks and Tartars resulted in the acqui-
sition of large territories in the east, and the successive partitions
of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria gave the Russian
empire all of the Polish territory east of the Niemen and Bug
rivers. Catherine was also a patron of literature, art and science,
as well as a long-headed politician. Voltaire corresponded with
her and expressed great admiration for the quality of her mind.
" Light comes now from the North," he said. She gave the large
towns charters, with the right to choose mayors and magistrates,
and made important changes in the condition of the nobles an*
clergy. The nobles of each province were formed into a corporate
body, with the power of electing judges and various minor
officers. An interesting attempt was even made to establish a
national parliament, A commission of between five and six
hundred deputies from different classes of citizens and officials
met in Moscow in 1767, and made drafts of laws, afterwards
issued by the Empress ; but, this commission proceeding to under-
take an investigation into the institution of serfdom, its influence
was considered dangerous, and the assembly was dissolved the
same year.
Fatal, the son of Catherine, was a weak monarch whose reign
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 13
$ had little significance in the development of the nation ; but the
reign of Alexander, his son (grandson to Catherine), is famous
achievements both of war and of peace. In 1805, Alexander
the northern powers in their stand against Napoleon, but
rhe Austro-Russian armies were defeated at Austerlitz. In
\[ 1806, the French took Warsaw ; in 1807, they took Dantzig ; the
Jsame year the combined forces of Russia and Prussia were
f\idefeated by the French at Friedland. The treaty of Tilsit, signed
x^by Alexander and Napoleon, made Russia an ally of France in
([/her movement against Spain; but the alliance was found to
involve so much disadvantage to Russia's commercial interests
'that Alexander withdrew from it. Napoleon, in retaliation, made
his famous invasion of Russia in 1812.
In June of that year the French crossed the Niemen into
Russian territory, and were allowed by the Russians to advance
farther and farther into the country, without being engaged in
/teny general battle until the 7th of September at Borodino, sev-
n -enty miles west of Moscow. Here the French were victorious,
Chough at the expense of great losses. September i4th, the
\[ French army came in sight of Moscow, and believed they had a
'magnificent conquest before them. "All this is yours," so Na-
fpoleon declared to his troops, as they gazed at the glittering domes
| {(of the old capital, and made ready to descend upon it. But,
***when they entered the great gates, they found to their amazement
that the city had been abandoned by its three hundred thousand
people and set on fire. It was impossible to remain and occupy
captured ground. Napoleon attempted to open negotiations
peace, but the commander of the Russian forces refused to
t any treaty with him so long as a foreigner remained within
HJussian territory. Three different attempts by Napoleon to make
rfterms were successively refused, and, in the middle of October,
jfclie " French, unable for lack of supplies either to advance or to
remain where they were, began to retreat toward the frontier,
retreat from Moscow was one of the greatest military
disasters in all history. The French soldiery, unprepared for the
14 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
rigors of a northern winter, suffered horribly from cold and
hunger, as well as from the attacks of the Russian troops. It
was the middle of November before they passed Smolensk, and
the remainder of the month saw the forlorn and desperate
scramble of a disorganized rabble to escape from death. At the
passage of the Beresina river almost all that remained of the
army were destroyed. It is said that over 257,000 of the French
army died during this one campaign, 193,000 more being taken
prisoners, a total loss to France of 450,000 men.
After peace was declared in 1815, Alexander devoted himself
chiefly to developing the resources of Russia and improving
details of the government. During his reign, Finland became
united with Russia, Alexander taking the title of Grand Duke
of Finland. He was honestly beloved for his integrity of char-
acter, as well as admired and respected for his ability as a
soldier and a statesman.
Nicholas I, a younger brother of Alexander I, in 1825 suc-
ceeded that ruler, who left no children. Wars with Persia and
Turkey during his reign brought new advantages to Russia,
a large money indemnity from Persia and increased territory
about the Black Sea from Turkey. In 1833, Turkey agreed, in
consideration of help received from Russia against Egypt, to
close the Dardanelles against all foreign vessels of war; but in
1839 the Ottoman empire was placed under the joint protection
of the great European Powers, as a fuller security for peace in
Europe. Fourteen years later (1853) the refusal of Turkey to
agree to certain demands made by Russia in behalf of the priv-
ileges of Greek Christians in the Holy Land led to a declaration
of war on Russia's part, and within a few months (1854) Turkey,
France, England and Sardinia were united against her, in order
to prevent her obtaining possession of Constantinople. The war
which followed centred in the Crimean peninsula, and involved
battles and sieges that are now world-famous. The siege of the
Russian fortress of Sebastopol by the allied armies lasted a year
(from October, 1854, to September, 1855). The battle of Bal-
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 15
aclava (1854) was the occasion of the disastrous movement of
the English Light Brigade, celebrated by Tennyson, when 670
Englishmen, with the enemies' batteries at each side and in front,
charged against a troop of Russian artillery. Of the 670 only
198 lived to return. The Crimean war was ended by a treaty
signed at Paris in 1856; Sebastopol was restored to Russia, and
the Black Sea was declared neutral.
The reign of Alexander II, son of Nicholas, was a time of
enormous forward movement in the national life of Russia. The
working of coal beds and oil wells was encouraged; railroads
and telegraph lines were greatly extended, in comparison with
their limited use when Alexander I came to the throne. But
the greatest achievement of all in the line of social improvement
was the emancipation by Alexander, in 1861, of all the serfs in
the empire, comprising some 53,000,000 individuals, then almost
half the entire population, and the establishment of a system
by which the serfs in the country districts should gradually
become the actual owners of the lands they tenanted and tilled;
at the same time the nobles, the original landed proprietors, were
to be reimbursed by the State for these lands and for their loss
of the serf-labor, they themselves being in turn released from
the legal responsibilities previously laid upon them for their serf
dependents, e. g., care of the poor, obligation to defend tenants
in actions at law and other protective duties.
In order to make as easy as possible for the newly eman-
cipated peasants the task of paying the State for the land which
had formerly belonged* to the nobles, a system of collective taxa-
tion was adopted, placing the legal responsibility for payment
not on individual peasants, but on groups of peasants, or village
communes. It amounted to making the Mir, or village commune,
the actual owner of the land, parcels of ground being allotted to
families for their independent use, according to the number of
persons in any given family to work the land and to be sup-
ported by its products.
The practical working of the Emancipation Act 1
l6 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
brought about ideal conditions in peasant life. The necessity
that the Mir, being responsible for the land taxes, shall have a
permanent communal existence, led to various restrictions of
peasant liberty of movement; and the illiteracy of the Russian
peasant, his easy-going temperament and his love of drink
perhaps no greater than that of most northern peoples have com-
bined thus far to keep the average social life of the peasant class
at a low level.
The reforms introduced by Alexander II, the Czar Liberator,
as he was called, included the establishment of courts of law on
the basis of trial by jury, the abolition of corporal punishment,
the increase of public education in both elementary and secondary
schools, and the social elevation of the clergy, who, as a class,
had been given too little dignified recognition by the laity.
Military operations in the east during the reign of Alexander
resulted in extending the empire still farther into Asia, enlarging
Siberia by the acquirement of a great part of Turkestan and
other territories.
In 1875, insurrections against Turkey broke out in her
Danubian provinces, and in 1876 a conference was held at Con-
stantinople to bring about reforms in the Ottoman administration ;
but the conference failed of its purpose, and in 1877 Russia
declared war against the Sultan. A series of brilliant engage-
ments, with heavy losses on both sides, lasted until the spring
of 1878, when Russia was on the point of taking Constantinople,
and at last securing an open road to the Mediterranean. Naviga-
tion in the Baltic and White Seas, being closed many months in
the year by ice, does not give Russia the outlet she wants; the
possession of Constantinople has for centuries been coveted as
the one bit of vantage-ground necessary in order to gain every-
thing else. Alexander I, in his time, is said to have remarked,
with terse significance : " II f aut avoir les clefs de notre maison
dans la poche." (We should have the keys of our house in our
pocket.)
But the other European Powers interfered. In June, 1878,
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. I/
representatives of the Powers met at Berlin under the presidency
of Bismarck, and in July a treaty was signed. Turkey paid
Russia a large indemnity, but ceded to her only Ardahan, Kars
and Batotim at the east of the Black Sea.
The restoration of peace gave Alexander II opportunity to
carry still further his large designs for the improvement of con-
ditions within his own empire, and there is little doubt that he
would have gradually brought about more and more beneficent
changes in the order of things, had he been allowed to carry out
his plans for the good of the country. But during his reign the
rapid increase of public education, co-existing with a relatively
slow development of industrial and commercial opportunities for
putting a larger education to use, had produced a class of dis-
contented theorists about the social order. " Satan finds some
mischief still for idle hands to do." The military campaigns of
the century, drawing so heavily on the resources of the country,
had left comparatively little capital and energy to be devoted to
positive, constructive undertakings of an industrial sort, and
the emancipation of the serfs had itself cost the government
some five hundred million dollars, seriously crippling the coun-
try's general enterprises. This being the case, among certain
circles of the disappointed, bitterness of feeling grew into organ-
ized hatred against the existing order of things, and led them
to seek for the total destruction of the existing order, as a
necessary condition of anything better. The Nihilists so called
from their demand for the annihilation of existing principles
and practices of government, religion and social order became
forty years ago a dangerous element in Russia. Secret organiza-
tion intensified their feeling to the point of fanaticism, and led
various of their adherents into criminal violence, with the most
fatal wrong-headedness and the most absolute self-sacrifice
curiously united. Between 1866 and 1881, repeated attempts were
made by members of the organization to assassinate the Czar,
and in March, 1881, a final attempt was successful. As Alexander
,vas driving through St. Petersburg, a shell was thrown tinder
1 8 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
his carriage, wounding two of his escorts, and, a few minutes
later, a second shell, thrown directly at his feet, exploded, giving
him wounds of which he almost immediately died.
The murdered Czar was adored by the peasants whom he
had freed and loyally respected by the whole body of his sub-
jects. The hot-headed Nihilists, however, could not give him
time for the further reforms" he so earnestly desired to make for
the good of his people. He was full of plans for the betterment
of the country, and many of these plans would, in all human
probability, have been soon carried out if he had lived a few years
longer. In a speech made in 1879 he said: "We have great
tasks yet before us. Those to be attended to at once are the
reduction of our expenses, the regulation of our currency, further
reorganization of our army and the improvement of the sanitary
conditions of our country." And in the last speech he made before
his assassination he enumerated among the projected improve-
ments the extending and cheapening of the railroad service and
the reduction of various taxes. Less than a month before his
death he had ready for enactment a state document summoning
a species of Congress or Parliament to advise with him in regard
to needed legislation; but his violent taking-off put an end, for
the time, to the prospects of any such modification of the existing
government.
Alexander III, who became Czar on his father's death, in
1881, was conservatively Russian and not inclined to further the
modernization of the country. He married a daughter of the
King of Denmark, and his son, Nicholas II, who succeeded him
in 1894, is consequently a nephew of the Queen of England. The
present Czarina, the wife of Nicholas, is a daughter of the Grand
Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and of Princess Alice of England,
daughter of Queen Victoria, and so is a niece of the King of
England. They are exceedingly popular, and can depend on
loyal support from the vast body of their subjects.
In 1890-91, when the present Czar was the heir-apparent or
Czarevitch, he made an extended journey through Greece, Egypt,
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 19
British India, French Indo-China, Japan, China and Siberia; and
one of his travelling companions, Prince Oukhtomski, later pub-
lished a full account of these travels, saying: "The time has
come for the Russians to have some definite idea regarding the
heritage that the Genghis Khans and the Tamerlanes have left
us. Asia! We have been part of it at all times; we have lived
its life and shared its interests; our geographical position irrevo-
cably destines us to be the head of the rudimentary powers of the
East."
One of the wisest students of Russian history and progress
says of the new Trans-Siberian railroad which is being rapidly
pushed across the continent to Vladivostock on the Sea of
Japan :
" In the commerce of the world, the Trans-Siberian will
work as important a revolution as did the discovery of the Cape
of Good Hope in the fifteenth century or the construction of the
Suez Canal in the nineteenth. The future policy of Russia will
be to secure the full attainment of what she has been striving
after for centuries in her onward march through the Siberian
wilds; that is, access to seas free from ice, where her fleets of
war and commerce may have unhindered course. Russia is
attaining this freedom of the sea four hundred years later than
Spain, Portugal, France, England and Holland. She has lost
nothing in having waited so long. She is about to inaugurate
a new era in her history. The oceanic, the world-wide era is
merely beginning for the Slav."
RUSSIA THEOUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 21
A WORD BEFORE STARTING.
Many years ago, when tea was a rare luxury, an old
sea-captain sent to a friend a small parcel of precious
Oolong, thinking to give great pleasure. But the thanks
of the recipient had a doubtful ring, so the captain asked
how the family had enjoyed the gift.
" Well, you see, we weren't quite sure how to cook
it," was the apologetic confession ; " but we boiled it
tender and ate it for greens. It's a curious taste, isn't It? "
We are all likely to make similar mistakes in our use
and, consequently, in our valuation of stereographs.
In order, therefore, to get from our Russian tour all the
pleasure and profit it can give, let us take a few minutes
in preparation for the journey, and see:
a. What is a stereograph?
b. How stereographs should be used.
What Is a Stereograph?
There is a fundamental difference between an or-
dinary photograph and a stereograph. The photograph
is taken by means of a single lens-opening in the camera.
It shows a building, for instance, exactly as we should see
the same building with one eye closed. But in actual
vision we use two eyes; the retina of the right eye re-
ceives one impression, the retina of the left eye receives
another impression, not the exact duplicate of the first;
our consciousness combines the two impressions into one ;
22 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
what we practically " see JJ Is a composite of the two
retinal impressions.
It Is easy to make a simple, experimental test of the
difference between one's impressions of the form of a solid
object received by the two eyes. Hold your right hand
straight out at arm's length in front of you, the palm
toward the left, the back of the hand toward the right.
Close the left eye and look at the hand. You see almost
nothing of the palm, but you do see something of the
surface of the back of the hand. Hold the arm In exactly
the same position; close the right eye and look with the
left only. Now you see little or nothing of the back of
the hand, but a part of the palm Is visible. Now loojk with
both eyes, as usual. You see a part of the back of the
hand and a part of the palm as well ; In fact, you see part
way around the hand. That is to say, you " see " a com-
posite of the varying reports sent in to the brain by the
two eyes, and the result is that the hand looks solid and
substantial. It seems to occupy space in three directions,
height, width and thickness.
A single photograph of a hand at the distance and
in the position Indicated above would not give precisely
this effect of solidity, of space-occupancy, of tangible
reality. The photographic camera has only one eye.
Just as a one-eyed man becomes accustomed to his lim-
itations, and learns to piece out his incomplete vision
with the help of memory and comparison of other ex-
periences, guessing at solidity on the hint of suggestive
shadows here and there, which could, he feels sure, be
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 23
caused only by certain changes In the direction of the
surface of a thing, so we find ordinary photographs,
in spite of their one-eyed vision, immensely suggestive
of the experiences of direct vision. Photographs are
good things.
But stereographs are far better whenever the subject
under consideration is one where we wish to experience
the sensation of actually looking at the things themselves.
For what we have in a stereograph of any given scene
is a presentation to each eye, separately, of just what that
eye would see when the observer occupied one given
standpoint. ' The differences between the observations of
the two eyes, one seeing a little farther around on the
right side of things, the other seeing farther around their
left side, can be partially discovered - by a careful com-
parison of the two parts of any particular stereograph
in which some object in the foreground is outlined against
some object in the background; but, if we thus examine
one of the stereographs, merely holding it in the hand
and looking at its complementary parts as we would look
at two photographs pasted on one card, and suppose that
we are getting the good of the stereograph, we are mak-
ing the old mistake of treating tea leaves like spinach.
The use of the stereoscope is necessary in order that we
may receive at the same time the two overlapping im-
pressions through the two eyes, and so once more get the
effect of three dimensions in space, height, width, thick-
ness or depth.
Try an experiment with one of these Russian stereo-
24 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
graphs, for example. No. 90, " The Birth of Jesus ;
Vladimir Cathedral, Kief." First, take a look at the
card, as you hold it in your hand. Yes, it seems at first
as if the two prints were absolutely alike. But notice the
halo about the head of the Virgin Mother. In the left
print there is slight separation between this halo and the
marble capital to the left. In the right-hand print you
notice twice the interval between the halo and the capital.
This shows that the picture on the right was taken by a
camera-lens set farther to 'the right.
It would seem as if such small variations could make
little difference. But place the stereograph in the sliding-
rack of the stereoscope and, adjusting its distance accord-
ing to your own eyesight, look out through the lenses.
Is it not like magic, the way in which you see now
the real cathedral, with that cavernous distance in beyond
the holy screen? Now you see that the painting of the
birth of Jesus, instead of being the central panel in a row
of three (as it at first looked to be), is away back, behind
the screen; you are seeing it at a respectful, reverential
distance, through an opening in the sacred portal.
The two prints, while held in hand, were excellent
photographs, but, while viewed with the naked eye, they
showed us only height and width, leaving us to infer the
dimension of depth as best we could, and we made poor
work of it! They entirely declined to give us any ade-
quate impression of depth. This impression the stere-
oscope has supplied by making for us a " composite " of
the slightly varying messages received by our two eyes.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 25
The stereoscope does this. It does still more.
When the stereograph, in its sliding-rack, is brought
to the right position to suit individual eyesight and is
properly seen through the obliquely set stereoscopic
lenses, the impression made on the eyes by any given de-
tail is that of the full-size object at the full, actual dis-
tance. For instance, suppose a stereograph shows a man
who was actually thirty feet away from the camera at
the moment of exposure. His image exists on the print
only a fraction of an inch high. But, when that tiny
image, seen through the stereoscopic lens at the distance of
a few inches, delivers its message to the eyes, it has the
effect of the very message the eyes would receive from
the full-size man at the thirty-foot distance. The possi-
bility of this correspondence of impressions made by a
large object at a long distance and a small object at a
short distance is something readily observed. A common
letter-envelope, held up at arm's length, may easily hide
from view a picture twelve times its size on the wall of
the room. It may even fill the same focal angle as a
whole building at a still greater distance outside the win-
dow. In the case of our stereographs, the fact is that a
printed figure a fraction of an inch high, a few inches
distant, fills the same space in the eye as a figure five or
six feet tall at the distance of the real man from the
operator's camera at the moment of taking the negative.
The result of the fact is that when we look through the
lenses of the stereoscope we practically look also through
the stereograph as if it were a transparent screen, and
26 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
we see the real objects^ full-size, as far distant from us as
they were from the camera when the stereograph was
taken.
There are some people to whom it appears at first
that only miniatures of objects are shown in the stereo-
scope. This is due mainly to their constant remembrance
of the small card a few inches from their eyes. They
modify what they might see by what they think they
ought to see. If such people will take note for a time
of the fact that they see nothing on the surface of the
photographic prints so close to their eyes, that they see
everything back of these prints as actually as if they were
looking through transparent screens or windows, then
they may get impressions of objects or places in the
stereoscope as large as they would if looking at the orig-
inal scene through windows of the same size and at the
same distance.
Stereographs, then, can give us (color only excepted)
the very same visual impressions that we should receive
in the presence of the actual things.
Moreover, a stereograph, properly seen through the
stereoscope, takes us into the presence of a certain scene
in a sense fairly analogous to that in which the telephone
brings a friend close to us. The intermediate processes
could be traced if we had space, making a most interesting
study. Of course, in the telephone a friend's body is not
brought to us ; nevertheless we get a definite sense that he,
his real self, is brought near us. Not only is he near for
all purposes of communication through the ear, but we
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 27
feel that we are in his very presence. Our feelings are,
our experience is, not that we are in the presence of a
telephone, which gives out certain articulate sounds, but
in the presence of a human soul.
Now it is in an analogous way that we may feel that
we have been transported to the distant place which is rep-
resented to us in the stereoscope. Our material body is
in our own chair at home, but our thinking, feeling self,
our real self, is in the presence of a place in Russia. The
reason why our experience is that a person comes to us
in the telephone while we go to the place in the stere-
oscope is this What we see, more than anything else,
gives us our sense of location. When we use the tele-
phone we see a room about us, and, consequently, we get
a distinct sense of our location there. But the testimony
of our ear at the telephone is that our friend is close to
us; we can't disregard this any more than we can dis-
regard the testimony of our eyes. His voice sounds as if
he were near, and that is sufficient to make us feel as if
he were near. But since, in fixing our own location, what
we see is more important than what we hear, our expe-
rience is that we stay in our room, and our friend comes
near to us there. When we use the stereoscope, on the
other hand, the hood about our eyes shuts our room away
from us, shuts out the America or England that may
be about us, and shuts us in with the hill or the city or
the people standing out behind the stereoscopic card. If
now we know by the help of maps where on the earth's
surface this hill or city or group of people is located, then
28 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
we may have a distinct sense of our own location there.
The conditions are that we shall look intently, and look
with some thought not only of the location of what is
before us, but also of what we know (from the study
of the maps) must be on our right and left or behind us.
The best evidence that we do get such an experience
when we use stereoscopic views properly, is the fact that,
ever afterwards, we find ourselves going back in memory
over mountains or seas to the place in the distant country
where the real scene is located, much more than to the
room in America or England where we saw the stere-
oscopic scene. After all, to get such an experience by
means of the stereoscope is little, if any, more extraor-
dinary, when we think of it, than our experience in con-
nection with the telephone.
Now, whenever we do get this sense of location by
the stereoscope it means that we have gained not merely
accurate visual impressions of certain places in Russia,
such as we should get if we went there in body, but also
part of the very same feelings we should experience there.
The only difference between the feelings gotten in the
one case and the other is a difference of quantity or in-
tensity, not a difference of kind. Therefore, the expe-
riences we may gain through the stereoscope are not to
be considered as mere make-believe experiences of being
in distant places in Russia, not substitutes for real ex-
periences there. The representations of parts of Russia
which are to be before us in the stereoscope will" be sub-
stitutes for the real Russia, but the feelings they may stir
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 29
in us, as well as the visual impressions they may give us,
are of the very same warp and woof as those gotten by
going to Russia in the body.
In this beginning of a new century we hear much
about modern advances in the solution of the problem of
transportation. Electric railways, automobiles, the out-
look toward possible future developments is something
marvelous. But our possession which most resembles the
magic travelling-carpet of Aladdin In the old story is the
stereoscope.
Nobody in these days needs argument for the desira-
bility of travel We travel to " see things," to enlarge our
personal experience of the world and its people, to gather
in materials for thought and for growth in thought, and
to increase our immediate and prospective resources of
happiness. " Culture/ 7 says Miss Blow in her Study of
Dante, " is the process by which the individual reproduces
in himself the experience of the race/'
The journey we are about to take, by the help of the
stereoscope, through the heart of Russia, is one which can
give us stores of delightful memories ; at the same time it
can if we choose be the occasion and incentive of a
long course of reading and study. All we already know
of Russian history,* politics, literature and social life
will naturally make the sights we see more full of mean-
ing and charm. On the other hand, every place we
see in the land of the Czar, as we cross it from the
Baltic to the Black Sea, will increase our healthy hunger
* A brief summary of Russian history is given on page 7 for convenient reference.
30 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
for a still fuller outlook into this world of ours and into
the lives of the people, so like us, so unlike us, who share
with ourselves the enjoyments and the responsibilities
of being alive today.
How to Use Stereographs,
a. Experiment with the sliding-rack which holds
the stereograph until you find the distance that suits the
focus of your own eyes. This distance varies greatly
with different people.
6. Have a strong, steady light on the stereograph.
This is often best obtainable by sitting with the back
towards window or lamp, letting the light fall over one's
shoulder on the face of the stereograph.
c. Hold the stereoscope with the hood close against
the forehead and temples, shutting off entirely all im-
mediate surroundings. The less you are conscious of
things close about you, the more strong will be your feel-
ing of actual presence in the scenes you are studying.
d. First, read the statements in regard to the loca-
tion on the appropriate maps, of a place you are about
to see, so as to have already in mind, when you look at a
given view, just where you are and what is before you.
After looking at the scene for the purpose of getting your
location and the points of the compass clear, then read the
explanatory comments on it. You will like to read por-
tions of the text again after once looking at the stereo-
graph, and then return to the view. Repeated returns
to the text may be desirable, where there are many details
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 31
to be discovered. But read through once the text that
bears on the location of each stereograph before taking
up the stereograph in question ; in this way you will know
just where you are, and the feeling of actual presence on
the ground will be much more real and satisfactory. On
the maps you will find given the exact location of each
successive standpoint (at the apex of the red V in each
case) and the exact range of the view obtained from that
standpoint (shown in each case by the space included
between the spreading arms of the same V) . The map
system is admirably clear and satisfactory, giving an
accurate idea of the progress of the journey, and really
making one feel, after a little, quite at home among the
streets of St. Petersburg and Moscow.
e. Go slowly. Tourists are often reproached for
their nervously hurried and superficial ways of glancing
at sights in foreign lands. Travel by means of stereo-
graphs encourages leisurely and thoughtful enjoyment
of whatever is worth enjoying. You may linger as long
a3 you like in any particularly interesting spot, without
fear of being left behind by train or steamboat. Indeed,
you may return to the same spot as many times as you
like, without any thought of repeated expense! Herein
lies one of the chief delights of Russia-in-stereographs,
its easy accessibility. Edward Everett Hale, who has a
genius for common sense, said once in a chapter of advice
on how to travel:
*' Above all, see twice whatever is worth seeing.
Do not forget this rule we remember what we see
32 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
twice. ... At Malines what we call Mechlin
our train stopped nearly an hour. " At the station a
crowd of guides were shouting that there was time to
go and see Rubens' picture of , at the church
of m This seemed to us a droll contrast to the
cry at our stations, ' Fifteen minutes for refresh-
ments ! ' It offered such aesthetic refreshment in the
place of carnal oysters that, purely for frolic, we went
to see. We were hurried across some sort of square
into the church, saw the picture, admired it, came
away, and forgot it clear and clean forgot it ! . . .
I do not know what it was about any more than you
do. But if I had gone to that church the next day,
and seen it again, I should have fixed it forever on
my memory."
We all know how great is the pleasure of recalling
before the mind's eye places or things that have once filled
us with wonder and admiration. Stereographs make it
easily possible to call up such scenes over and over again,
not only to the mind's eye, but actually to our corporeal
eyes, giving us precisely the same sensations as at first,
only enriched and made fuller of meaning by virtue of
the thinking we have done meanwhile. We all know
books that we have read over and over, seeing in them
each time more than we saw before, because we have
taken to them each time a richer mind to do the reading.
So repeated visits to the same place often surprise us
with revelations of interesting and significant things
quite overlooked in a first visit. And Russia is well worth
such re-visiting.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 33
FINLAND.
All roads lead to Rome. Many roads lead to Russia. But
the most interesting entrance into Russia is by way of the north-
west, crossing the Baltic from Stockholm, and lingering on the
way in picturesque and poetic Finland.
Many of us have, at the outset, a vague, hazy idea of Fin-
land. We associate it with Lapland, with the ice and snow of
a region near the Arctic circle, and almost forget that it has a
summer and a prosperous city population. We know that our
own Indian poem of Hiawatha was modeled by Longfellow upon
the Kalevala or national epic of Finland, its haunting rhythm
borrowed direct from the musical Finnish, and so, perhaps, the
name makes us think of furs and wigwams and pipes. That
has been, half unconsciously, the Finland in our minds. Now
we have a chance to see this far-away northland with our own
eyes.
Railroads are remarkable means of transportation; steam-
boats might take us to Helsingfors. But if we choose, a stere-
oscope may take us to Helsingfors, away at the other side of the
world, on the shores of the blue Gulf of Finland. As we pointed
out in "A Word Before Starting" (which should be read now if
it has not been read before), it is possible for us to get by a
proper use of stereographs, a distinct sense, or experience, of
location in Russia. This means that we may gain not merely
clear visual ideas of certain definite places, but also some of the
34 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
very same feelings we should experience if we were bodily in
Russia, the only difference being in the quantity or intensity,
not in the kind of feeling. The extent to which we shall approxi-
mate to what might be our full experience on the spot, will depend
upon the attention we give to each scene, on the knowledge we
have of the meaning and historical associations of what is before
us, and on our knowledge of the location of what we see and of
important places about us that we do not see.
First of all, we shall in each place wish to know where we are.
This can be done, if a person has not lived in Russia, only by a
constant use of the special, patented maps given in the back of this
book. Let us turn first to the general map of Russia to fix our
route in mind. We shall have to do, as we see by the map, only with
Russia in Europe. In the upper left-hand corner of the map is
Finland, a province of Russia. The red line which begins in this
province at Helsingfors and extends down through Russia to
Odessa on the Black Sea indicates the route, along which the
places we are to see are located. After Helsingfors we are to
see some places around Viborg, about two hundred miles east
of Helsingfors, then eighty miles south-west we shall come to
St. Petersburg and vicinity. About four hundred miles farther
towards the south and east we are to reach Moscow. After
Moscow we shall visit Nijni Novgorod, two hundred and seventy-
five miles to the east, then Kief, the "Jerusalem of Russia,"
six hundred and thirty miles south-west of Moscow, and, finally,
Odessa, four hundred miles south of Kief.
The small rectangles in red refer to other maps, on a larger
scale, of the sections enclosed in the rectangles. Let us turn
now to the special map of Helsingfors and find there the exact
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 35
place where we are to stand first. In the lower part of this map
is a circle with the figure i in it, both in red. From this circle
two red lines branch out extending toward the north and east,
and the figure i without a circle is given at the end of each
line. We shall take our position now on the little Observatory
Hill from which these lines start, and look over that portion of
Helsingfors which the lines enclose.
i. Helstngfors, the Capital City of Finland, from Observa=
tory Hill.
This is Finland. This place is several thousand miles away
from home. We "are looking almost north here, we know, and
to a European horizon. Europe is all about us. Norway and
Sweden are away on our left, over our left shoulder ; Poland and
Germany are behind us; St. Petersburg is off to the right, that
is, to the east, where the Gulf of Finland receives the waters of
the Neva. This is foreign soil and those are European clouds.
What a dignified and substantial little city this is! The
smoky huts of our fancy may indeed exist far out in the remote
parishes of the country, but here at least every appearance is
that of a prosperous, self-respecting modern town. There is the
great Lutheran church of St. Nicholas, with its columned portico
and its lofty dome, looming up at the left, directly before us.
That dome is a landmark familiar to sailors for miles out at
sea. The long, three-story building this side of the church is
the Senate-house, and to the right, farther down the harbor
side, is the Imperial palace.
There are altogether some two and a half million people in
3 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
this northern province which stretches away for some four hun-
dred miles in front and to the left of us, a sturdy, thrifty race,
inclined to do things decently and in order. The soberly solid
style of the public buildings speaks the character of the people.
That large church at the right, near the harbor-side, is the
Russo-Greek cathedral of the Assumption. Most of the Finns
are Lutherans, but, since the country became (1809) a grand-
duchy of Russia, Russian influence has naturally grown stronger,
and Russians themselves have become more numerous in official
positions. The tendency is just now to insist on a general Russi-
fication of everything in these outlying provinces. The story is
told that one Russian governor-general, thinking it might be
desirable to establish here In Helsingfors the police system of
his native country, conferred with the Finnish chief of police,
asking how large a force of Finns could be depended upon
to preserve order in the town. " Sixty thousand, Your Excel-
lency," promptly replied the Helsingfors man. And, as the whole
population is not much more than that, the implication was
emphatic regarding the character of the citizens of Finland's
discreet little capital.
With this distant sight of the town to give us a general im-
pression of its dignity, let us go down to the square where the
markets are held. We shall pass through this park, so trim and
well-kept, down by the wharves where those vessels are lying,
and beyond the railroad where that train of cars stands wait-
ing, to the open square this side of the Senate House. We shall
find there an interesting array of market boats, which have come
in from the villages and farms down the harbor-side. The map
will show our position again.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 37
2. Market Boats, Helsingfors.
If we want to make acquaintance with the Finnish country
people, this is our chance, for here they are, with their vegetables
and fowls, their butter and cheese and eggs. The shore of Fin-
land is all cut up into small bays and fiords, and round about
Helsingfors so many of the peasants live close by the water, the
town makes this special arrangement for the accommodation of
their boats along one side of the market-place. Look at these
granite steps leading down to where the boats are fastened, each
to its stout iron ring; they are fine enough for the landing of far
more elegant and imposing craft ; but Finland is rich in quarries,
and can afford her good, substantial water-front for the sim-
plest every-day use. Finland granite quarries are famous all
over Europe. Indeed, here in Helsingfors, some of the buildings
are actually erected on foundations of the " living " rock, un-
moved from its original bed.
Some of these boats have been rowed all the way to town;
they look like heavy craft to row. Some, like this one at our
feet, have mast and sail as well, ready to take advantage of the
breeze, coming or going. It requires vigorous muscle to pull
a clumsy boat like that eight or ten miles, and get into market
early, for a good day's business. As likely as not, a large share
of the rowing has been done by these energetic looking women.
Women do a great part of such heavy work in Finland. Apples,
potatoes, onions, beans, there seems to be a good variety of
"garden truck" right here in this first group of boats, and, as
for prices, we should not need a long purse to keep house in
Helsingfors. A Finnish mark (twenty cents) goes here almost
as far as a dollar goes at home with us. What dp you suppose
3& RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
is in that tall jug, just behind the man in this nearest boat?
Perhaps a home-brewed beer. Very likely that big, loosely woven
basket in the bow of the boat may be home-made too. Finnish
winters are long, long seasons ; there is plenty of time to practice
all such domestic handicrafts. -And, indeed, the parish schools
hereabouts make a special point of having children grow up able
to use their hands as well as their eyes and ears.
The men and boys whom we meet here in Helsingfors wear
clothes not essentially different from those of our own country,
but many of the women, thanks to their vari-colored aprons and
kerchiefs, are more picturesque. On Sundays these women will
blossom in quaint white caps.
Every thrifty bargain-hunter here today has brought a bas-
ket, to be filled after prudent consideration. See that man stand-
ing in the third boat, offering samples of his wares for examina-
tion by the doubtful customer. Very likely she will pass on,
after all, and buy from one of the other boats farther up the land-
ing, or from one of the market carts that we see ranged in line,
away over in front of the large stone building just opposite where
we stand. The three-story building on our right is the Senate
house, the same building, you will remember, that we saw in line
with the church of St. Nicholas, when we were looking from
Observatory Hill.
Now let us cross the square, ourselves, to the street running
in front of 'those buildings, pass along this street several blocks
off to -the left, away from the water, up among the shops and
business offices, and turning around, look back toward the water
again. The map shows that we shall be looking east then, di-
rectly at right angles to our -range of vision here.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 39
3. Noira EspIanad=Gatan, the Principal Street of S1elsing=
iors.
Hardly any trace of the market crowd can be seen at the
farther end of the street, but we can see the portico of the Senate
house with one of the pillars supporting it, and besides, over the
roofs of those farthest houses, we can see the topmost pinnacle
of the Russo-Greek cathedral, the imposing building that stood
at our right from Observatory Hill.
Could you not easily believe yourself in some thriving town
in America, fortunate indeed, if the American town were equally
clean and tidy? The neat, modern buildings, the street-car track,
the telegraph wires, the lamp-posts, are the most familiar of sights.
The bicycler in the roadway and the newsboy on the sidewalk
might be our neighbors at home. The trees in the little park
at our right look vigorous and neatly kept, and their shade is
something to be grateful for, too, in midsummer, even though
at this moment we are farther north than Sitka or the southern
point of Greenland.
We might know we are next door to Russia, for here is a
droschky coming towards us up the street. It is behind the load
of wood, now it is almost opposite the cart, where a shirt-
sleeved teamster stands in the body of his wagon. See that
stout wooden arch extending from shaft to shaft above the head
and shoulders of the droschky horse, and notice how low and
small the wheels are! The driver, a typical Russian, in a low-
crowned hat and a long frock, perches on a high seat in front.
We cannot see the turn-out as plainly as we would like, but we
shall meet more of the same pattern everywhere in Russia.
The talk we overhear on the street here is usually Swedish
4<~> RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
or Finnish, but the Russian tongue is fast coming to be used,
now that the government is undertaking to Russianize the prov-
ince. See how the passers-by eye us with curiosity; one, yes,
two of the teamsters are turning to look at us as they drive along.
But the curiosity is quite friendly. Their prejudices are quite in
favor of Americans. If we had occasion to ask for information
or help, we should find intelligent courtesy at our service. Ele-
mentary education is almost universal here in Finland. Most
of the people are Lutherans, and their church requires all its
communicants to learn to read and write. Indeed, there is a
large public library here in Helsingfors for working people, be-
sides the University library, used by some eighteen hundred
students. Yes, Helsingfors is the metropolis of an exceptionally
intelligent, industrious, and thrifty people. America will surely
be a gainer if the present tide of immigration from Finland
keeps on.
We can -hardly call this a rich country, but little Finland's
resources are of excellent quality, so far as they go. Finland
granite "brings large prices, and Finland timber finds a ready
market; timber, tar, paper and paper-pulp are among the largest
items of her export trade. The trees grow of themselves, in
fact we might almost say that the rock grows of itself, for,
according to geological reports, parts of the shore are still slowly
but steadily rising from the sea-level.
On our way east to Imatra, we shall stop, as our general
map of Russia and Finland shows, to see a typical Finnish forest
4. A Forest in Finland.
Outside the towns there are great tracts of forest land like
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 41
this, between Helsingfors and Imatra. The trunks of wood
giants rise in armies from among boulders covered with moss
and lichens. Many of these forests are favorite resorts for
picnic parties and for sportsmen. Archery is a favorite amuse-
ment in this region, and children as well as grown people be-
come expert with the bow and arrow.
The old Finnish poems of the Kalevala are full of ancient
legends and folk-tales of these woods and waters. One old song
or rune tells how, when this land was first made, Wainemoinen
sent out a sower to clothe the barren earth.
" Seeds upon the land he scatters,
Fir trees sows he on the mountains,
Pine trees also on the hill-tops,
Many shrubs in every valley ;
Birches sows he in the marshes,
In the loose soil sows the alders,
In the lowlands sows the lindens,
In the moist earth sows the willow,
Mountain ash in virgin places,
On the banks of streams the hawthorn,
Juniper in hilly regions."
And very soon the seeds came up; all but the oak. The oak
alone declined to sprout until, urged by a magic spell, it sud-
denly took to growing, and grew and grew and grew until it
u Raises it above the storm-clouds,
Far it stretches out its branches,
Stops the white clouds in their courses,
With its branches hides the starlight,
With its many leaves the moonbeams,
And the starlight dies in heaven."
Then Wainemoinen, the hero of the old tales, dismayed by this
overdoing of his work, called up out of the sea a dwarf, and this
f, changing into a giant, cut down the oak tree, letting sun-
42 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
light and starlight once more shine on the earth, and leaving room
for the pines and firs. And, ever since, the pines and firs have
had things their own way.
Moving on towards St. Petersburg, there is one more Finnish
town we must take time to see, Viborg; and one more bit of
nature, the Irnatra Falls.
5. the Mad Waters of the Famous Imatra Falls.
There is endless fascination in rapids like these. We could
sit and watch them for hours at a time, as this party of travellers
are doing, charmed into silence by the never-endingness of the
waters' rush and roar. The fall of the river is between sixty
and seventy feet, but the descent is by rapids extending for half
a mile, instead of making one leap. All this half-mile the river
keeps up its mad dance between the rocky shores, tossing its
spray high over projecting boulders and ledges, and whirling
round and round in dizzying eddies. No wonder that primitive,
childish peoples regard a stream like this as a live thing with
a vigorous personality and a will of its own..
This northland is full of poetic legends about the rivers and
lakes. The old-time Finns and their neighbors over across the
gulf have all sorts of picturesque stories about them, that have
been handed down from the grandfathers of their grandfathers.
They tell this tale of a lake very like the ones from which the
Imatra waters flow. Long, long ago,
" savage, evil men dwelt by its borders. They neither mowed the meadows
which it watered nor sowed the fields which it made fruitful ; but robbed
and murdered, insomuch that its clear waves grew dark with the blood of
slaughtered men. Then did the lake mourn ; and one evening it called
together all its fishes and rose aloft with them into the air. When the
RUSSIA THOROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 43
robbers heard the sound, they exclaimed : ' The lake hath arisen. Let us
gather its fishes and treasures.' But the fishes had departed with the
lake, and nothing was found on the bottom but snakes and lizards and
toads. And the lake rose higher and higher and hastened through the
1 air like a white cloud. And the hunters in the forest said : ' What bad
weather is coming on.' The herdsmen said : ' What a white swan is
flying above there.' For the whole night the lake hovered among the stars
and in the morning the reapers beheld it sinking. And a voice came from
the waters : ' Get thee hence with thy harvest, for I will dwell beside thee.
Then they bade the lake welcome, if it would only bedew their fields and
meadows ; and it sank down and spread itself out in its home to the full
limits. Then the lake made all the neighborhood fruitful, and the fields
became green, and the people danced around it, so that the old men grew
joyous as the youth."
But we are more concerned with Finland as It is than with
Finland of fairy-tale times. This " land of a thousand lakes "
well deserves the name, for there is not a region in the world more
thickly dotted with pools and sheets of water, often connected-
by more or less navigable streams, dear to the trout and salmon
"fisher. We noticed, of course, the graceful span of that rail-
road bridge over the river above the Imatra Falls. Science is
fast coming in here to replace the old folk-stories, but Kipling
assures us that there is romance in nineteenth-century railways
and steamboats, and he is right. Not far from these Falls there
is another fine bit of engineering to see on our way down to
Viborg, a long canal, or rather a series of canals nearly forty
miles long, connecting Lake Saima with the Gulf of Finland.
The canals were constructed for the government by a distin-
guished Swedish engineer, to complete the water-way from Lake
Ladoga to the sea. The descent from Lake Saima to the Gulf
is over two hundred and fifty feet, so the waters are held in place
by a series of twenty-eight granite locks. We will take one
glimpse of the canal at Lavola, near one of these locks.
44 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
6. The Picturesque Salma Canal at Lavola.
What a contrast between the mad scramble of the Imatra
waters and this serene placidity ! The solid granite wall of the
canal looks as if it were built to last; do you wonder that Fin-
land is proud of this way she has made from Ladoga to the
ocean? It is a magnificent piece of constructive work. The
winding waters of the canal are so beautiful, reflecting every foot
of the tree-covered shore, that we may well wish ourselves on
board the Alii out there in mid-stream for a sail to the next lock.
Alii is a favorite name for girls. It is quite possible that
the urchin here on the ground beside us has a sister Alii, who will
go, one of these days, to a government dairy school to learn the
best, up-to-date ways of butter and cheese making. The dairy
industries are an important part of the resources of busy, thrifty
Finland. As for boys, they are boys the world over. This one
lives in the same boy-world as that whose passing Eugene Field
lamented :
" I once knew all the birds that came
And nested in our orchard trees ;
For every flower I had a name,
My friends were woodchucks, toads and bees.
I knew where thrived in yonder glen
What plants would soothe a stone-bruised toe . ..."
Let us hope that the foot he is just now rather anxiously nursing
will soon forget to ache.
But, beautiful as this peaceful stream is, we must leave it
and go on now towards our Russian goal. We will look into
one more market-place, this time in Viborg, and then make straight
for St. Petersburg.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. - 45
7. The Marketplace, Viborg.
We see here, as In Helsingfors, signs of Russia's nearness
in the prevalence of the douga, that curious arch from shaft to
shaft over the shoulders of the cart horses. This Finnish house-
wife just before us has bought an apron-ful of some sort of veg-
etables, and, with a heavy basket in her right hand, is starting
homewards. If you wish to do any shopping here, you will have
to provide for yourself some way of carrying off your purchases.
The market people do not have paper or string for tying up
parcels. That is a frank, jolly-looking fellow with the oblong
basket balanced on his head. If only we could understand his
gay talk with the two neighbors who stand with their backs
toward us ! Can it be a pile of gingerbread cakes that the woman
in the light-colored waist and apron (just beyond him, to the
right) is carrying so carefully? One can buy almost anything
at a market like this. Whatever is not sold from the peasants'
carts we can find at one of the booths which fill the circumfer-
ence of that great, circular building at the farther side of the
square. The occupants of those booths consider themselves sev-
eral degrees higher in the business world than their neighbors
who make trades at the tail of a cart.
In the ancient folk poem of the Kalevala, " Osmotar the bride
adviser" gives Finnish women sage counsel for an occasion
like this:
" Shouldst thou ever make a'journey
To the centre of the village,
There to gain some information,
While thou speakest in the harnlet
Let thy words be full of wisdom,
That thou shamest not thy kindred,
Nor disgrace thy husband's household.'*
46 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
It would be interesting- to know more about that odd, cir-
cular building, with its massive walls, its peep-hole windows, and
its curious, bowl-shaped roof. It may well be that it has some bit
of history belonging to it, for Viborg is an old town, and, being
almost on the frontier of Finland, it was in the old days the scene
of many a conflict between Russia and Sweden, poor, little
Viborg occupying the space between the two blades of the scis-
sors ! Peter the Great besieged the town in 1710, but took it
only after a struggle of several weeks. Perhaps this market hall
could unfold tales of war and tumult; but now it is devoted to
peaceful competitions in potatoes, onions and yarn stockings. Its
last days are better than its first.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 47
5T.
We go now to the land of Peter the Great, to the city which
he built, almost by fiat, on the banks of the Neva river. The
country between Viborg and St. Petersburg is a far-stretching
level, largely made up of dismal marsh lands; it seems the last
region imaginable in which to find a great modern city the size
of Philadelphia, a city renowned all over the world as the centre
of the Russian national life, a city where military schemes are
shaped affecting the affairs of all the other great peoples of the
world, in short, the capital of the Czar.
A word or so should be said about the maps we are to use
in connection with St. Petersburg. There is a general map of the
city; a second map on a larger scale of the central section or
the most important part of the city; a third map of the city and
its environs, showing the city on a very small scale and some
neighboring places we are to see, such as Tsarskoe Selo and
Peterhof, and fourth, a plan of the Czar's palace and grounds at
Peterhof. We should always read the Explanations printed in
red on these maps until we understand perfectly the system by
which the stereographed scenes are located.
For some time we shall use only the general map and the
sectional map of St. Petersburg. Most of the places we are to
see in the city will be indicated on the general map, but all the
places we see in the central section of the city will be marked
out more clearly on the special map of this section.
Taking the general map we can quickly get in mind the main
4o RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
physical features of the city.. The Neva river winds in from the
east, and in three main branches empties into the Gulf of Finland
on the west. The streets are very irregular, so we shall have to
note our positions on the map carefully in order to get our bear-
ings when on the ground.
We are to stand first in the Nevsky Prospect. Find the
Admiralty building, almost in the center of the large map. It
is marked 251 on the larger map and Admiralty on the sectional
map. Running off to the right from this, a little south of east,
is the Nevsky Prospect. We are to stand near the red circle
enclosing the figure 8, and look toward the Admiralty; that is,
nearly west. For a time it will be wise to use both maps.
Most cities have their favorite promenades, where the finer
shops are found, and where in the fashionable season, society's
carriages go by in elegant state. In St. Petersburg that charac-
teristic street is the Nevsky Prospect (Perspective of the Neva).
8. Nevsky Prospect, the Principal Street of St. Petersburg.
Just now, on a midsummer noon, we find the street com-
paratively quiet, like any fashionable promenade in the unfashion-
able season. But, since we are spared the mental distraction of
trying to take in all the gay details of the crowded Prospect as
it appears in winter, carriages and sledges dashing by drawn by
magnificent Orloff horses, officers and diplomats, court beauties,
Cossack guards, perhaps even the Czar and the Czarina on their
way to the Winter Palace at the farther end of the avenue, we
can now have eyes for the street itself.
As we know from our map, we are looking nearly west here,
from the corner of the Imperial Library toward the Admiralty or
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 49
Navy Department. It is the slender, gilded spire of the Admiralty
that we see away at the head of the Prospect. The street is an
unbroken level and almost perfectly straight for three miles of its
length, from the Admiralty to the Moscow railway station, and its
width, as we see, is something imposing too. It is one hundred
feet from building to building across the street. The car-tracks
iown the middle of the roadway are paved with cobble-stones;
spaces to the right and left of the car-tracks are in many places
paved with wood. The spaces next to us, along the low side-
walks, are left for hired carriages and carts. The low sun lays
long, horizontal shadows across the sidewalks, even now at noon,
making us realize that we are far up towards the north pole.
We are, in fact, in about the same latitude as Dyea and the Chil-
coot Pass.
The shops opposite here, on the sunny (north) side of the
Prospect, are the more elegant and expensive. If we wish to be
very luxurious we can have our lunch at one of the swell res-
taurants, ordering fish soup made of sterlet at five dollars a
pound, or oysters, tiny ones, at twelve and one-half cents apiece.
If we wish to do our shopping on a more modest scale, we ought
to explore this long, two-story building here at our left. It ex-
tends seven hundred feet along the south side of the Prospect,
and still farther on the cross street at right angles to the Prospect.
It is the Gostinny Dvor or Great Bazar, a sort of perpetual fair,
or collocation of retail shops,- over five hundred of them,
for almost every conceivable sort of goods. At Christmas time
the space we see between the building and the sidewalk will be
filled with other temporary booths, gay with Christmas trees,
cakes and toys; and, again, just before Palm Sunday, the booths
5O RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
reappear full of pussy-willow twigs, verba (the accepted sub-
stitute for palm branches) and gifts for Easter.
That tall building straight ahead with the signal tower is
the City Hall. There must be a watchman somewhere on its
balcony this very minute, pacing his beat and keeping a lookout
for signs of fire. The watch is kept up day and night, and
the location of any outbreak discovered is indicated to the fire
department by means of those signals, painted boards by day,
colored lanterns by night.
That small building just this side of the City Hall is a
chapel where the devout call for a minute to cross themselves
before a favorite ikon or sacred picture. The Russo-Greek
Church, unlike the Roman Catholic, does not encourage the use
of crucifixes or other sculptured images to assist devotion, but
the churches are full of painted pictures or ikons, partly cov-
ered with metal; the face and hands of the person represented
are usually all of the painted image that is shown. The chapel
just ahead has double attractions for our fellow-passengers on
the Prospect, for in this particular chapel, all summer long, the
priest in charge keeps a great bowl of water and a dipper, where
thirsty mortals may help themselves, leaving in another bowl
any small coin they happen to have, as an offering to the church.
If we were to go in, it would be quite allowable for us to make
change from the bowl, in case we had not the right coin at hand !
The people we meet now walking on the street are distinctly
the ordinary working people. In St. Petersburg everybody who
makes any pretensions at all to social importance rides about
his affairs. Small shop-keepers and clerks on slender salaries
manage some way to keep tip a droschky and "appearances."
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 51
Indeed, the long distances and the cheap carriage hire make
riding an easy luxury for the traveller. We can take a seat in
one of the queer little two-story street-cars, running always in
groups of threes, down the middle of the street alongside the tall,
electric-light poles; or we can hire a carriage; better still, if
we want to be as Russian as possible, we can hire a droschky,
like these two that are just about passing where we stand.
Russian cab and droschky drivers are eager for customers, and
will take us any ordinary distance for ten or fifteen cents. The
small wheels and the low-hung body make the droschky look like
a toy phaeton. The horses, yes, the horses in these public
droschkys do look unkempt and spiritless, but they really have
plenty of spirit. There was never yet a droschky horse that
could not go like the wind, if required, and at least appear to
enjoy it.
Before we bargain with our isvostschick or droschky driver,
let us turn for a moment directly about from where we have
been standing and walk a few rods back, past the Imperial
Library, to an open square where a monument to Catherine II
stands in front of the Alexandra Theatre. According to our
maps, we shall then be looking south.
9. Monument of Catherine II and Alexandra Theatre,
What have we here? Apparently a party of school-girls,
around a buxom wet-nurse ("Kormilitza"), gorgeous in her
diadem-shaped cap of velvet with gold embroidery, the badge
of her calling, and the big bead necklace which she and the
women of her class are always proud to own. She is evidently
not at all averse to being admired. X And where is her special
52 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE,
charge? Perhaps it is the^baby carried by the little girl, back
near the monument. We see one little girl here with a kerchief
tied over her head who likely belongs outside of St. Petersburg,
for that is a peasant fashion. The little fellow just behind the
nurse has half a mind to be afraid of us.
The base of this monument is of Finland granite like that
we saw used so freely in Helsingfors. Russia has a passion for
monuments, and it is well that one of her grand duchies is rich
in quarries. The colossal figure surmounting the monument is,
of course, Catherine II, the " Semiramis of the North," the re-
markable woman who was ruling over Russia during the time of
Washington and Franklin, an imperious beauty, a blue-stocking
and a long-headed politician, all in one. The figures placed
about the pedestal are those of distinguished Russians of Cath-
erine's time. Among them, along with generals and statesmen,
is Derzhavin; one at least of his poems is well known in its
English translation:
" G, Thou Eternal One, whose Presence bright
All space doth occupy, all motion guide."
Another of the figures is that of the Princess Dashkoff, the
first president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and her-
self an author.
This little square looks peaceful enough today, full of chil-
dren and posy-beds, but it has seen ghastly sights in its time.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, while Elizabeth (the
daughter of Peter the Great, and the aunt of Catherine's hus-
band) was Empress, one of the most beautiful and nobly born
of the ladies of the court indulged In too free comments on
Her Majesty's love affairs. She was brought here and whipped
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 53
In the presence of a great crowd of people, then banished from
the country. They had rough ways of discouraging scandal-
mongers in those old days.
The Alexandra Theatre, over at the farther side of the
square, holds the past and the present together. Usually its
stage is devoted to contemporary Russian or German comedy,
but now and then it revives .some of the very dramas that
Catherine herself wrote, in the old times when she was the
greatest woman in Europe. In Russia today the government
helps support the theatres, interesting itself in the quality of the
representations to the extent of appropriating funds for schools
where actors and dancers are systematically taught their busi-
ness.
And now, without keeping our droschky longer waiting,
suppose we give ourselves into the care of the isvostschick, and
let him take us down to the Winter Palace. No, there is still
one more sight we must first see in this neighborhood; that is,
the bronze statues decorating the bridge, over which the Nevsky
Prospect crosses the Fontanka Canal. "St. Petersburg has sev-
eral fine canals, forming convenient transportation ways across
the city and adding a great deal to its beauty. Peter the Great
took a great fancy to such water-ways during his visit to Hol-
land, and imported the idea. This particular canal was con-
structed to carry water to the fountains in Peter's summer
garden, hence its name. Our next position can be seen on the
maps, slightly to the right of Alexander Square.
10. Allegorical Statue, Man Conquering: the Brute; Fon=
tanka Bridge.
This bridge (it is sometimes called the Anitchkoff Bridge,
54 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
from an old palace near by) Is now almost in the middle of the
city, but one hundred years ago it was in the very outskirts of
the capital. In the time of Alexander I it was made a rule that
no incomer should be allowed to pass over, without leaving his
name on record with the bridge keeper. The story is told that,
at one time, respect for the rule had waned to such a point that
passers-by made up jocose names for registry, merely to tease
the recording clerk. This would never do. Respect for the
law must be maintained. The officer in charge was instructed
to detain in custody any person whose registration was suspected
as not genuine. The first victim of the new regulations chanced
to be an imperial comptroller called by a queer mixture of Russian
and German, " Baltazar Baltazarovitch Kampenhausen " ; the
gate-keeper was sure this was a joke, and made the high digni-
tary wait, fuming with indignation, while his right to the pro-
cessional name was being investigated.
There are four of these magnificent bronzes ornamenting
the stone bridge, all differing in the poses of the man and the
horse; and St. Petersburg is proud of them as the work of a
Russian sculptor, Baron Klodt. See how finely the spirited
vigor of animal nature and the calm, over-mastering strength
of human nature are brought out ! The angry beast might almost
be Mazeppa's steed in the old story.
* ' Bring forth the horse ! The horse was brought .
In truth, he was a noble steed,
A Tartar of the Ukraine breed,
That looked as though the speed of thought
Were In his limbs ; but he was wild,
Wild as the wild deer and untaught,
With spur and bridle undefiled,
'Twas but a day he had been caught.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 55
And, snorting-, with erected mane,
And struggling ilerceh, but in vain,
In the full foam of wrath and dread
To me the desert-born was led."
And, when we come to think of it, it is natural that Byron's
description should fit this wild horse figured by a Russian
sculptor, for the Mazeppa of the old story was a Cossack chief
in the days of Peter the Great.
But here in St. Petersburg we are constantly reminded that
a vast deal of nature is yet untamed. The very waters that flow
under this bridge are a menace to the city, for the whole town
is built on a low marsh, and inundations have more than once
brought disaster. North* west gales blowing up the Gulf of Fin-
land have more than once sent calamitous high tides rolling
back into the city. There is a spot close by here, on the wall of
the Anitchkoff Palace, where a mark is set, showing the point
to which the waters rose in 1824, almost fourteen feet above
their normal level.
Now we will turn once more down the Nevsky Prospect,
pass again by the square opening into the Prospect, where
Catherine's statue stands before the Alexandra Theatre, drive
down the broad avenue, alongside the great Bazaar and by the
Town Hall with its signal tower, past rows of shops gorgeous
with pictorial signs and with lettering in the quaint Russian
alphabet, until we come to the Bolschaya Morskaya, a street
which crosses the Nevsky Prospect near its head, and which leads
over to the Winter Palace of the Czar. On the maps we follow
back along the Nevsky Prospect toward the left, past our two
former positions, until we come to the Bolschaya Morskaya. ,
5<3 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
We shall take our stand now on this street where it crosses the
Nevsky Prospect and look north.
n. Bolscfiaya Morskaya.
Here, as it happens at this particular time, we must halt our
droschky, for the street has been cleared in readiness for the
passage of the Czar and his guest (August, 1897) the German
Emperor. The Czar often goes driving in the most simple,
unostentatious fashion, without guard and without ceremony;
but, when he does choose to appear in state, he receives the most
punctilious public respect. The Russian colors that we see fly-
ing everywhere are red, white and blue, but usually arranged
in parallel stripes, the blue in the middle, as we see in the
banners that float from the buildings here and from the tall
electric-light poles along the middle of the street. The German
colors, black, white and red, are flying too, in compliment to
Kaiser Wilhelm.
The better sort of streets in St. Petersburg are perpetually
being swept by men like the one we see here with his long
broom and his dust basket.
Aren't these sign-boards fascinating things? Bewildering
too, for the characters of the Russian alphabet are just suf-
ficiently suggestive of English, so that it seems as if we must
be able to make them out. At the same time they are just
sufficiently flavored with queer, unfamiliar marks to baffle
us entirely. Meanwhile, not being preoccupied by any notion
of what sounds the characters represent, we have all the better
a chance to appreciate their really remarkable beauty as deco-
rative shapes and patterns. Printed in gold on backgrounds of
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 57
rich red, green and blue, or In color on a gold background, they
are a delight to the eye every time we see them. Tradition
says that the Christian missionaries St. Cyril and St. Metho-
dius, in the ninth century, invented this alphabet, or, rather,
adapted it from the Greek. Peter the Great revised It in his own
day. It is difficult to find anything in Russia which is not con-
nected in some way with Peter the Great.
After royalty has gone by, this crowd along the sidewalks
will disperse. Then we can move on, through that rather low,
heavy archway just ahead, into the great Palace Square. After
crossing the square we shall look back toward this archway,
that is, toward the south-east. The sectional map will give our
position more clearly.
12. Monument to Alexander I, Arch of Triumph and the
Staab Building.
And here we are in the Palace Square. We have entered
from the Bolschaya Morskaya through that archway, and have
turned directly around, facing the point at which we entered
the great open square. This is practically a huge parade-ground;
twenty thousand soldiers have been massed here on great occa-
sions. The Staab or General Staff Building, that we see form-
ing an enormous semi-circle enclosing the south-east side of
the square, includes the headquarters of various Important gov-
ernmental departments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Ministry of Finance, the Department of Customs and others.
It would be interesting to know the projects that are taking shape
nowadays in the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs !
The Russian nation is the greatest landholder in the world.
58 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
and it likes to do things generally on a large scale. Just look
at this monument to the first Alexander, and try to believe that
the shaft, itself eighty-four feet high, is one single block of
granite! But it is quite true. It is the largest single stone that
has ever been quarried since the time of the Egyptian obelisks. It
weighs four hundred tons and came from Finland. Reckoning
the pedestal (that is a single block about twenty-five feet each
way) and the crowning figure of a cross-bearing angel, the
whole height of the monument amounts to nearly one hundred
and fifty-five feet. The ground all about here where we stand
is " made land " ; it was originally only an oozy marsh ; and, in
order to make a sufficiently solid foundation for the column,
six lengths of piles were driven, one above another, into the
treacherous earth.
Russia never will forget how Alexander defeated Napoleon
in his attempt to invade the land ; how the French advanced
confidently to Moscow looking for easy victory; and how
Alexander and the northern winter together drove them back,
wounded, starving, freezing, dying by thousands along the dread-
ful way towards home. After that, what Russian would not
adore Alexander? France and Russia today are friends and
allies, but the Czar's people still feel the old thrill of triumph
over such a rout of the country's invaders. And, besides,
Alexander was an admirable ruler in days of peace. He had a
good sense of justice and honor. He was a man of character.
We remember the story they tell of his discussing with some
adviser a measure he proposed to take for the permanent securing
of a certain good to the public. He was told that the action
proposed was not necessary, that the welfare of the people was
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 59
secure enough with a just man like himself on the throne.
"Yes," said Alexander, "but, after all, that is only a fortunate
accident."
If now we should turn exactly right-about-face, we should
find ourselves viewing the front of the Winter Palace, which
occupies the opposite (north-west) side of this same great, open
square. But, in order to get a completer idea of the building,
we will change our standpoint to a spot near the western end of
the square, just where the Nevsky Prospect begins, and where
we can see a part of two sides of the Imperial residence. The
map shows that we shall then be looking about north.
13. The Imperial Winter Palace from the Nevsky Prospect.
Here is the famous palace where so many displays of court
splendor have taken place. This palace was behind us while we
stood looking at the Alexander Monument and the Staab Build-
ing. You know our former position was in the square on our
right only a short distance beyond the limit of our vision in that
direction. To the left of the palace we see the Great Neva our
first sight of it. The buildings beyond the river are on one of
the islands.
As for the palace itself we can readily believe it is one
of the largest residence structures in all Europe. This western
end, opposite the linden-bordered avenue, we are told is three
hundred and fifty feet long, and the main front, facing the
square, nearly half as long again. The tree-lined avenue leads
down to the Palace Bridge, by which we could cross over to one
of the large islands in the Neva. And, by the way, we must be
sure to see by-and-by those twin columns that loom tip above
60 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
the trees, beyond the farther end of the street. They are over
on one of the islands, and are counted among the curiosities of
St. Petersburg.
Catherine II, the Catherine whose statue we saw near the-
Alexandra Theatre, built this palace in the eighteenth century.
Imagine her as the historians describe her, a brilliant, stately
beauty, riding on horseback from the palace door, an oak wreath
on her head and a sword in her hand, to greet her army as its
sovereign head! This palace includes a church of its own, a
special place of worship for the royal family, and the reception
rooms, boudoirs and chambers of state are almost innumerable.
In old times this was the actual as well as the theoretical home
of the imperial family, and this involved the housing of an
enormous number of courtiers, retainers and servants. It is
declared that five or six thousand people at a time have lived
in the huge pile really a city in itself. The building as we see
it now is not precisely as it was in Catherine's day. A great
fire in 1837 burned out much of the interior, and the restorations
involved a good many changes. There is a doubtful tradition
that, before the fire, watchmen who .were stationed on the roof
built cabins up there among the chimneys and set up housekeep-
ing on that lofty plane with their wives and children.
But this was above the roof. Under the roof each genera-
tion, according to its own standard and fashion, has made the
most lavish display of formal elegance. The court balls given
here in the winter are said to be the most brilliant in all Europe,
in point of decorations, costumes and jewels. In the times of
Catherine II, while George and Martha Washington were living
like simple gentlefolks at Mount Vernon, the frequenters of
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 6 1
the palace here were as splendid as wealth could make them.
According to the chronicles of the time, people of fashion must
have been gorgeous to behold; a historian of the times says,
u Their buttons, their buckles, the scabbards of their swords,
their epaulets, consisted of diamonds; and many persons even
wore a triple cord of precious stones round the borders of their
hats."
It is in a room here (in the Imperial Treasury), that the
Russian crown jewels are kept, stones whose value is really
almost beyond count, like the possessions of a king in a fairy
story. The Orloff Diamond, for one, is the largest of all the
crown diamonds in Europe. They say it was once the eye of an
idol in an Indian temple. Stolen by a French soldier, it passed
through the hands of a Jew and an Armenian, then was pur-
chased by Count Orloff and presented to Catherine II. It is
set in the imperial sceptre.
But the Winter Palace stands for tragedy too, as well as for
court splendor. It was to this very building that the good and
great Alexander II, the Czar Liberator, in 1881 was brought
home to die. He had freed forty-seven millions of his country-
men from serfdom, established schools, built railroads, reformed
the legislation; he was so tradition says on the very eve of
establishing a species of parliamentary representation for the
people. But the insanity of Nihilism fixed on him for a victim,
and he was murdered in a street just beyond here, over near the
Summer Garden. Russia has not yet quite recovered from the
horror of that day.
Catherine the Great, the builder of the Winter Palace, was
62 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
a student as well as a stateswoman, and she set apart a certain
attached pavilion for her own particular, private den, fancifully
calling it her " hermitage." The books, pictures and curios that
she collected gradually made up a good-sized museum, and her
successors added to them more and more, until another build-
ing had to be erected to hold them. Still the collection grew,
and, some fifty years ago, the museum building was remodeled.
It stands, as the map shows, by the other (north-east) end of this
Winter Palace. Let us turn to the right, pass by the long fagade
of the Palace, and look at the famous peristyle or columned
porch of the museum.
14. The Peristyle oi the Hermitage.
How superbly impressive these granite giants are, uphold-
ing the roof of the nation's art treasury! Each one stands
twenty-two feet high, and looks even taller, thanks to the sculp-
tor's art which brought out so strongly the virile uprightness
of their strongly modeled figures.
We could spend days and weeks wandering through the
nearly endless rooms of this famous museum, for Russian wealth
and Russian enthusiasm together have made it the storehouse of
many of the finest existing masterpieces of art; The galleries
are beautifully arranged.
15. Gallery of Modern Sculpture in the Hermitage.
Room after room like this we might pass through, full of
the creations of celebrated sculptors from the times of Phidias
through the days of Michaelangelo down to the present time.
Gallery after gallery we might visit, lined with famous pictures,
many of them priceless originals by the old masters, pictures
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 63
that we know at home only through photographs or humble,
black-and-white prints. The Spanish, Italian, Flemish and Dutch
schools are particularly well represented here. But, if once we
undertook to really see all - that is worth seeing here in the
Hermitage, we should never go away. We may as well make
up our minds to the inevitable limitations of time. We must
resolutely turn our backs on the rooms full of coins, of gems,
of ancient and . modern vases and rare pottery, of Oriental
antiquities and curios, and go out once more into the open
air, to study things more strictly Russian, about the streets and
squares of the city.
The Neva river flows behind the Winter Palace and the
Hermitage, as we have seen, and it is near the river that we
shall find the favorite city parks. As we leave the Her-
mitage, we will take a short street running north-east, parallel
with the river, until we come to the little park at its farther end,
known as the Summer Garden.
16. Imperial Summer Garden, St. Petersburg.
Peter the Great built a house fronting on this open garden,
and the Empress Anne erected in 1731 a still finer mansion known
now as the Summer Palace. It is a smart little park, neatly
kept, like all the public places in St. Petersburg, and offering us
a grateful bit of green shade during the short Russian summer.
In winter, the winds sweeping across here from the Neva are
so deadly cold that the more delicate trees have to be wrapped
in straw and boxed up to keep them from freezing. These statues
are even swathed and protected in the same tender fashion, and
not left to display their bare limbs, with shivering suggestive-
64 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
ness of rheumatism, to the icy blasts. Indeed, setting aside all
sympathetic sentiment for the delicate nymphs and goddesses,
it is a stroke of thrifty prudence to give them winter clothes,
for St. Petersburg frosts can do dreadful havoc with stone-
work. That magnificent Alexander Column which we just saw
(Stereograph 12), over in the Palace Square, has already had
some ominous fissures made in it by the winter frosts ; but, alas,
the Alexander Column has to suffer the penalty of its greatness.
It is too large to be covered up in the winter, and it must take
its chances.
The people we meet here in the Summer Garden under the
linden trees are of the well-to-do merchant classes. We always
find nurses and children here as they are now, the little folks
amusing themselves very much as our own babies do at home.
There is a curious, underlying similarity in children's games the
world over. Young people resort here too for love-making
promenades. In old times the wooing was of a frankly busi-
ness-like sort. On Whit Monday, a favorite festival among the
many in the Russian church calendar, young girls of marriageable
age used to be brought here by their mothers, dressed in their
best clothes, the approximate amount of their dowries indicated
by the richness of their jewelry, and deliberately ranged in line,
for inspection by the young men. Critical youths walked up
and down the line, and made their choice of sweethearts; this
choice, if agreed to by the girl and her watchful mother, was
confirmed by a formal betrothal and then consummated later
by the wedding ceremony in church. Such bare-faced bargain-
ing would shock the prosperous mammas of St. Petersburg to-
day; but they do say that on Whit Monday, even now, a stir-
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 65
prising number o pretty girls always happen to be decorously
walking here just when the eligible young men are out for their
holiday stroll!
As we go about the streets of St. Petersburg, especially as
we frequent this part of the city near the Neva, we are continu-
ally impressed by the marvelous success with which a great
metropolis has been created out of a well-nigh hopeless north-
land bog. The city is named for St. Peter, but it might well be
counted the namesake of the old Czar who called it into existence
less than two hundred years ago. If we want to realize what one
man of genius can do to wake up a nation and set it on its feet,
let us retrace our road, returning to the Winter Palace, and
passing still farther west, by the great Admiralty building, to the
north-west side of another great open square. There Peter the
Great, in bronze, reins in his prancing horse and looks out over
the Neva. Our position can be easily found on the map, to the
west of the Admiralty.
17. Equestrian Statue of Peter the Great.
Considered just as a colossal monument, this is a fine piece
of work. The pedestal is a single block of Finland granite
weighing fifteen hundred tons; tradition says it is the very rock
on which Peter once stood to watch and direct a battle with the
Swedes. The bronze figure is seventeen and a half feet high,
and contains some sixteen tons' weight of metal. The French
sculptor Falconet, who cast the statue, secured the balance of the
rearing horse by making him trample under foot a huge snake,
emblematic of Difficulty and Danger. (We could see the serpent
better from the other side of the pedestal, but this is the best point
66 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
of view for the stern horseman.) An immense weight was con-
centrated in the serpent's body and in the horse's hind legs, and
the junction of the flowing tail with one of the snaky coils (it
looks accidental) keeps the whole enormous mass solid and
secure. The Latin inscription says, with dignified brevity, "To
Peter I, by Catherine II, 1782." It seems a pity that the imperial
donor's name should be rather more conspicuous than that of
the hero himself, but Catherine, like other great people, had her
little weaknesses.
There is a fascination about this grim, commanding figure.
It is like what Peter the Great ought to be, the man who only
about two hundred years ago (1696) took in hand a nation hardly
more than half civilized, hardly recognized among the European
Powers, and put it in the way of being what it is now, one of
the mightiest forces with which the civilized world has to
reckon.
Russia owned vast inland territories, but no seaport. Peter
took Turkish lands on the Black Sea, Persian lands on the
Caspian, Swedish lands on the Gulf of Finland. Russia had
no ships, no sailors, no knowledge of sea-craft. Peter went in
person to Holland and set to work as a ship-carpenter's appren-
tice, learned the trade, such as it was two hundred years ago,
from start to finish, filling up his spare time by studying rope-
making, blacksmithing and a few other crafts, handy for a new
nation to know. When he came back to Russia, it was to inaugu-
rate one practical enterprise after another. He wanted, he said,
"a window to look out into Europe." A city must be built on
the Neva, for the national capital. The site was a desolate bog,
away tip towards the Arctic circle; there was no building stone,
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 67
there was hardly a peasant inhabitant. But everything is pos-
sible to a Peter the Great. Peasants and workmen were sent,
willy-nilly, forty thousand at a time, from other parts of the
empire, to live here and begin operations. Ships were con-
structed according to the newly learned system, land-lubbers were
forced to swallow their prejudices and fears and to learn navi-
gation. Shipmasters and teamsters were required to bring from
distant quarries the vast quantities of stone needed at the new
port to build quays and to lay solid foundations for prospective
buildings. Every ship of a certain size had to bring thirty stones
at each visit; smaller boats were required to bring ten; every
peasant cart must bring at least three, whatever its other load.
Peter himself lived in a cottage over on the north shore of the
Neva and kept things moving. He made a vigorous foreman,
when he was not a general leading the Russian army against
his (naturally) numerous enemies, or an educator founding
schools and libraries, or a prince exacting more or less elegant
deference from his court. And a court he had, too; he simply
issued orders that certain of the nobility should at once build
residences in the new city, and palace after palace was obediently
constructed, followed by the shops of merchants likewise sum-
moned to help populate the new capital. It was a unique sort of
"boom" in real estate!
What does the great Czar think of his work now? "Holy
Russia," his beloved Russia, is what he meant she should grow
to be, one of the Great Powers. Look closely at those blouse-clad
boys loitering around the statue! They are rapidly being made
into soldiers, hardy, persistent, obedient to the Casablanca point,
every mother's son of them. The nation's arm is vastly longer
68 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
than It used to be. It has greater strength as well as wider
range. And bronze Peter, on his rearing horse, gazes across the
river as if there were still a good deal on his mind !
An interesting trait of our Russian cousins is the serious way
in which they take their developing national history. They are a
devoutly religious people, after their own fashion. Every house,
even every shop, has its ikon or sacred picture, usually of Christ
or the Virgin Mary, and to this picture or to the personality it
stands for the greatest reverence is shown. There are dissenters
from the popular faith among the people at large, but the ortho-
dox Russian believes heartily in a Lord of heaven and earth,
and, moreover, he believes as heartily that the Russians are the
Lord's chosen people, specially beloved and protected by Him,
and destined to inherit the earth here as well as heaven by-and-
by. The Czar is, by virtue of his office, the anointed head of the
Russian Church; the ceremony of his coronation includes a
solemn, religious consecration, reckoned as a sort of sacrament.
In Russia, Church and State are actually united in the person
of the Czar.
The largest and most impressive of all places of worship
in St. Petersburg is here beside us, opposite Peter's statue. If
we turn to the right, from where we have been standing, we
find ourselves facing one of the beautiful, great porticoes of
St. Isaac's. The sectional map shows that we shall be on the
north side of St. Isaac's, looking somewhat east of south.
18. St. Isaac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg.
This park extends for some distance all around us ; the open
square into which it merges stretches off behind us to the river-
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 69
side where Peter bestrides his horse and tramples the snake
Difficulty tinder foot.
St. Isaac's is dedicated to a Dalmatian saint of the Greek
Church, not to the Hebrew patriarch with whom we are more
familiar. But, in our tourist eyes, it is a monument to the almost
incredible persistency and the almost unlimited resources of Rus-
sian enterprise. One _ hundred years ago the ground on which
we stand was a waste of boggy marsh. Fully a million dollars
were spent in sinking a thick forest of piles to prepare for its
stone foundations. The church itself was only forty years in
building; it is from first to last the work of one architect,
Montf errand of France (the same man who designed the
Alexander monument), and, having been completed less than
fifty years ago, it has no ancient historic associations. Indeed,
the exterior has nothing characteristically Russian about it ex
cept the beautifully picturesque Russian lettering of the inscrip-
tions over the vast entrance porches. The legend over this
entrance front, directly facing us, signifies: "The King shall
rejoice in Thy strength, O Lord."
There are four great porches like this, one on each side;
for the ground-plan of the building is a Greek cross; and en-
trance is given on three of the four sides alike. The eastern
portico alone has no entrance doors, for here, as in all Russian
churches, the altar and the ikonostasis or sacred screen occupy
the eastern end.
As we look up at the building, we are more and more awed
by the magnificence of its proportions. It is nearly four hundred
feet in width. These steps are enormous single blocks of red-
gray granite from Finland, fit for a giant's palace. Compare
70 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
the height of a man with that of the pillars, and see how
enormous they are. They seem to grow taller as we study
them. At first sight they were beautiful in their simple ele-
gance, but when we realize the scale on which they are formed
and placed, they become something marvelous. Each column
is a single mass of rosy-reddish granite, sixty feet high and
seven feet in diameter, polished like a jewel. There are only
two larger single stones in the world; one is Pompey's Pillar
in Egypt, and the other is the Column of Alexander, which
we admired in the square opposite the Winter Palace (Stereo-
graph 12). The Corinthian capitals of these porch pillars are
of greenish bronze, making a fine contrast of color with the
granite columns and with the marble of the walls. The triangular
pediment or gable supported by these columns and filled with
bronze bas-reliefs might in itself complete a lofty building, but it
is, in fact, only the roof of an entrance porch. The marble walls
of the cathedral proper rise higher and higher behind it. Above
the horizontal line of the roof, with its cupola bell-towers, a circle
of granite columns rises, surrounding the lofty drum of the dome.
Just now there is a temporary scaffolding over the drum; some
repairs or renovations must be in process. Higher and higher
our eyes follow. Indistinct angel figures in bronze stand guard
at regular intervals on the balcony above the higher circle of
columns. Then above the angels' heads rises the dome like a
gigantic bishop's cap of glittering gold, and, above all, the golden
lantern, its summit three hundred and thirty-six feet from the
ground. It takes one's breath away.
These bronze bas-reliefs in the pediment are worth detailed
study as spirited bits of sculpture, though they contradict every
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 71
traditional custom of church architecture in the Greek com-
munion. The Eastern church, as a rule, frowns on sculptured
representations of sacred subjects. The sculptures of this pedi-
ment before us represent the Resurrection. The statue over the
peak of the pediment is St. John; at the eaves, Peter and Paul.
The figures surmounting the main building at its outer corners
are colossal angels kneeling before candelabra twenty-two
feet high.
It was in 1825, while St. Isaac's was building, that the Czar
Nicholas I had a dramatic encounter with three revolting regi-
ments right on this square where we now stand. It was a
strange complication of things that led to the situation. Alexan-
der I, son of Paul, and grandson of Catherine the Great, had
just died, leaving no children, but, instead, three younger broth-
ers, Constantine, Nicholas and Michael, Constantine being the
eldest of these survivors. He was a somewhat eccentric char-
acter, and had for years spent most of his time at Warsaw,
where he was Governor General of Poland, and had married a
Polish wife. Nicholas, the second brother, being in St. Peters-
burg at the time of Alexander's death, proceeded naturally to
proclaim the accession of Constantine as heir to the throne, and
sent word to the new Czar at Warsaw to come home and be
crowned. But, to the amazement of Nicholas, the elder brother
declined the invitation with thanks, presenting, in turn, certain
documents dating back to the time of his Polish marriage, by
which it appeared that he had several years previously renounced
any and all claims to the throne. This put a new face on the
matter and made Nicholas himself the new Czar. The high
officials of Church and State willingly took the oath of alle-
72 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
glance to him, but when it came to having the soldiers swear
allegiance, there was great confusion. In the first place, the
soldiers, not understanding Constantine's position, had an idea
that Nicholas was a usurper; and, in the second place, the lead-
ers of a revolutionary political party, who wished to overthrow
the Romanoff dynasty and establish a constitutional monarchy,
excited the troops to revolt and raised a rallying cry of Con-
stitutsia, a cry which the Illiterate soldiers confused with the
name of Constantlne, and that made matters all the worse.
Three entire regiments massed themselves here In this square
behind the statue of Peter the Great, in open revolt. Nicholas
learned of the movement, and with his staff rode over here from
the Winter Palace to meet the rebels. As the Czar drew near,
an officer in one of the disaffected regiments advanced, his
right hand thrust significantly into the breast of his uniform.
The Czar steadily rode on till they were within a sword's length
of each other. " What do you bring me ? " asked Nicholas. The
officer looked him in the eye ,* turned his horse ; rode back to the
ranks. He said afterwards: "The Czar looked at me with so
terrible a glance that I could not kill him."
The Insurgents were ordered to disperse, and at first refused,
but a battery of artillery was brought up, and repeated volleys
of cannon-shot brought them to submission and put an end to
the incipient revolution.
Those who have the patience (and the muscle) to climb to
the roof of St. Isaac's are rewarded by wide views in all direc-
tions over the city and its surroundings; for St. Petersburg is
practically level and lies spread out like a map. We shall now
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 73
take our position on the roof of the Cathedral, and look out over
the city in a direction slightly east of north. As we are now
facing toward the south-east, it is evident that we shall then
be looking directly toward what is now on our left. The two
diverging red lines which indicate this new position on the maps
show that we are to see part of the Admiralty building and also
look over two former .positions (Stereographs Nos. 12 and 13),
thus seeing again the Winter Palace and the Alexander column
in the Palace Square.
19. St. Petersburg from the Dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
Just at our feet is the War Office, with the arms of Russia
emblazoned on its gabled roof, a two-headed eagle, crowned,
and grasping in its claws emblems of Russian Church and State.
It is, of course, a symbol familiar to all good Russians. They
tell a story of a young Grand Duke some years ago, who one
day shot an uncommonly large bird while out hunting. One of
the men-in-waiting picked tip the prize, and, full of respectful
enthusiasm, brought it to the sportsman. "Your Highness has
killed an eagle," he announced. The Grand Duke was a nice
boy, but he was better versed in horsemanship and fencing than
in ornithology. He gave the trophy a hasty glance. "That's no
eagle," he declared, scornfully, "it has only one head!"
The two-headed bird of Russia is an enormously significant
emblem in these days. Germany, Austria, France, England,
China, Japan, America, all the world is interested to know the
orders that go out from this building at our feet, the Russian
War Office, with its absolutely impassive countenance of stone
and its blankly non-committal, expressionless eyes of windows.
74 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
But all our gazing at the outside of the building will not sum-
mon its state secrets to view. We certainly shall not learn here
" the lay of the land " in matters of state policy. It will be enough
if we learn the literal lay-of-the-land, and get our local bearings
clearly fixed in mind.
We are looking north-north-east, we must remember, over
a part of the ground we have so lately traversed. That long
(comparatively) low building with the cupola and the tall, slender
spire, that we see at the left over the roof of the War Office,
is the Admiralty, the seat of the Navy Department. The Nevsky
Prospect begins, we know, nearly opposite the middle of this
Admiralty Building, and runs off to the right between those
chimney-crowned, tin-covered house tops that seem from this
point of view so solidly massed together. Yes, we remember
looking down the Nevsky Prospect from the corner of the Im-
perial Library, a half a mile or so beyond the limit of our vision
on the right, and seeing this same slender, golden spire in the
distance at the head of the avenue (Stereograph 8). Then it
was near where the Prospect begins, there in the Admiralty
Square, that we stood to admire the Winter Palace (Stereograph
13). That is the Winter Palace now, beyond the Admiralty,
with its front nearly in line with the Admiralty front, and a little
observation will show that we were then looking at the same
side of the Palace that we now see all bathed in sunlight. The
Hermitage Museum (Stereograph 14) must be just beyond the
Palace. A little farther to the right we can see very clearly a
part of the sun-lighted fagade of the semi-circular mass of the
General Staff Building (Stereograph 12), and, between us and
the Staff Building, that noble shaft of the Alexander Monument
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 75
holds the cross-bearing angel up against the sky. It was Into
that open square there between the Winter Palace and the
Staff Building that we emerged when we had gone through the
arched passage at the end of the Bolschaya Morskaya (Stere-
ograph u).
The Admiralty and the Winter Palace are both directly on
the bank of the Neva, of which we can catch a glimpse again
over the lower roofs between the Winter Palace and the cupola
of the Admiralty. The buildings that we see to the extreme
left beyond the Admiralty and the Palace are on the islands that
make up a great part of the city area, to the north; for instance,
the spire that we see just at the right of the Admiralty spire is
about a mile away, on the fortress cathedral of Saints Peter
and Paul the cathedral where Peter the Great lies buried. That
fortress can be located better on the general map. We will go
over there later. That spire is one of the tallest In Russia, three
hundred and forty feet high. It is from the Admiralty spire
here, on this nearer bank of the river, that signals are hung in
times of high water, to warn the city of coming inundations.
Over all the rest we look to the limits of the city on the north.
Suppose we go part way around the roof toward the left,
and look off in a direction slightly west of north, but still
from the same height.
20. Admiralty Building, University and Vasili! Ostrof,
Now we are looking almost directly north across the Neva
to Vasilii Ostrof or Basil Island (Vassilievskaia). The park
at our feet Is the one from which we first viewed the cathedral
on which we are standing (Stereograph 18). Indeed, you can see
76 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
the very same flower bed that was nearest us then, down our left
here, between the third and fourth walk. The equestrian statue
of Peter the Great (Stereograph 17) stands on the river bank
at the edge of the park, but beyond the limit of our vision here.
That nearest large building with the rows of granite columns
and the gabled projection in the roof is the Admiralty again,
its western end. We remember we saw a section of this same
end of the Admiralty when we were down on the ground look-
ing up at Peter's commanding figure (Stereograph 17). It is
the most natural thing in the world that Peter's effigy and the
official home of the Navy Department should stand side by side,
considering how dear to his heart was the enterprise of establish-
ing a navy. It was Alexander I who erected the present build-
ing. In Peter's own day that site was occupied by common
ship-yards, where he instructed his men in the art of boat build-
ing, and from which he sent them out to practice navigation
on the river. The chroniclers say that some of the amateur
skippers had a sorry time of it during their first lessons in sea-
manship. One unhappy noble, too much honored by the royal
command to take charge of a vessel, put off from here and spent
three miserable, hungry days tacking between St. Petersburg
and Cronstadt, twenty miles down the Gulf, trying in vain to
make a landing during rough weather.
From this high vantage point we are able to catch sight of
two of the three branches into which the Neva divides, as it flows
out through the city to the gulf of Finland on the west. The
river nearest us, just beyond this park, is the main branch or
channel of the Neva, and is known as the Bolchaia or Great
Neva. The water dimly seen over the trees on the island of
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 77
Vasilii Ostrof is the Malaia or Little Neva. It is best to locate
the field of view before us here on the general map of St.
Petersburg also. We find the limits of our vision marked there
by the two red lines which branch off in a north-westerly direc-
tion from St. Isaac's. These two lines have the number 20 at
their extremities on the map margin. Now we can understand
exactly what part of the Great Neva and of the Little Neva
we have been looking at, and we can also see that the third branch
of the Neva, known as the Nevka, which in turn divides into
the Great and Little Nevka, leaves the Neva a mile beyond our
vision limit on the right. It is clear now too that we see from
our present position on St. Isaac's parts of the two islands formed
by the Neva's three branches, the nearer Vasilii Ostrof, and
beyond the Peterbourgsky Ostrof, or Peter's Island. In spite
of the haze we are looking practically to the limits of the city
toward the north-west. Beyond Peter's Island there are four
smaller islands, formed by branches of the Nevka. These are
more or less closely occupied, chiefly forming park-like suburbs,
the favorite pleasure resorts of the towns-people.
In winter time this part of the Great Neva becomes a favorite
place for fun and social gayety. The snow is cleared away,
leaving wide roadways of ice for sleighs and sledges. Chairs
mounted on broad runners are pushed about by men on skates.
There are often exciting races over the frozen course, down
where we see that little steamer, between us and Vasilii Island.
That island is the commercial centre of the city, just as the region
where we are now (the neighborhood of the War and Navy De-
partments, |he Palace and the Staff Offices) is its political and
social centre. Let us see ... Yes, we can make out from
?8 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
here one of the most notable landmarks of the Island, something
we have seen before in the distance and shall later see more
closely. Away out to the right, above the Admiralty build-
ings, do you see the conspicuously dark side of another pile of
buildings, and, beyond that, a tall column standing up against
the horizon line? That is one of the pillars near the Bourse or
Exchange, located on the end of the island; we saw both of
the columns from the corner of the Winter Palace (Stereo-
graph 13).
Over there on the island are also the Academy of Sciences
and the National University, whose fine stone buildings are in
sight just over the left-hand corner of the Admiralty, beyond
that tall flag-staff. Some of the university graduates and mem-
bers of the faculty have a wide reputation in their various sub-
jects.
It was among the students of this university, as well as
among the students in the universities of Kief and Moscow,
that the disturbances started of which we have heard so much
lately (1901). Rumors of plots to kill the Czar were numerous.
In connection with these disturbances the Minister of Public
Instruction was killed.
Now if we go around to another point on St. Isaac's roof,
where we can look off toward the west, we shall get a further
idea of the extent of the city.
si. Riding School of the Life Guards, Synod, Academy and
Vasili! Ostrof .
The Czar's Chevalier Guards, a magnificently drilled part of
the Russian army, have their Riding School in this temple-like
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 79
building at our feet, impressive building, that. It is all the more
impressive in contrast with that tiny box of a house close beside
its nearest corner, a mere shed or toy house it looks from here.
That is one of the little houses to be seen here and there in
St. Petersburg, where vendors of fruit, sweets, etc., retail to
passers-by.
The plain, three-story building at the other side of the park
is the Synod, the official headquarters of the ecclesiastical author-
ities of St. Petersburg. The street-car track that turns around
the corner runs a few blocks alongside the narrow, tree-filled
park and then, turning to the right, crosses the river (which runs
between us and that huge, white building over yonder), by the
Nicholas Bridge, and leads over to a point on Vasilii Ostrof.
near where you see that same great building, the St. Peters-
burg Academy of Arts. In that art school many of the best-
known Russian painters and sculptors have studied. Here in
Russia, as everywhere else, 'art students are often desperately
poor, and have hard struggles to maintain themselves while they
are earning their fame. The greatest sculptor the country has
yet known, Marc Antocolski, was thirty years ago working over
there in the Academy, and trying to keep soul and body together
on ten roubles (five dollars) a month. The dome of the Academy
building is surmounted by a colossal statue of Minerva, the patron
of the arts and goddess of wisdom; but, unfortunately, under
the dome there must have been a great lack of wisdom, for the
professors frowned on Antocolski's original spirit and methods,
and would hardly look at him or at what he did. But, with
the inspired egotism of the born artist, he kept on in his own way,
and at last, one fine day the President of the Academy did look
80 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
at his wonderful statue of Ivan the Terrible, and was mightily
impressed by it. The President brought an appreciative Grand
Duchess to see it. The Grand Duchess brought the Czar. And
from that time forth the genius who conceived the Ivan statue
had no longer to live in a starving body. They made him a
member of the Imperial Academy, gave him a government pen-
sion, and sent him to Rome to study and work according as it
pleased him.
The Russians are not, as a rule, generally appreciative of art.
Their chances to see fine pictures and statuary are very few
in comparison with those of the people of Italy, Germany and
France, where art galleries are numerous, and where the churches
are the repositories of many of the best works of the greatest
masters. Ecclesiastical art here in Russia is held, for the most
part, within rigid bounds by the rules and traditions of the
Eastern Church. The ikons, though amazingly numerous, seldom
if ever depart from certain prescribed rules of execution; they
are, as a rule, stiffly conventional symbols of persons and things
rather than pictorial representations of the persons or things,
making up in gorgeousness of setting (gold, silver and every
sort of precious stones being lavishly used to represent, for in-
stance, a Virgin's robe or halo) for the lack of expression in
a sacred face.
We cross now to Vasilii Ostrof, the island we have been
looking to several limes, and which we see in the distance here.
Those buildings which we see in line with the Academy of Arts
are all facing the Neva, being the first row of buildings on the
island. The map shows that we shall go on the third street
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 8 1
from the river, near its eastern end. There we shall see a
characteristic bit of church ceremonial, where an ikon is being
used the setting-out of a procession of church dignitaries
to bless the waters of the Neva and make them fit to drink.
22. St. Catherine Church and Holy- Water Procession.
We are just in time to stand here on the street corner and
watch the people as they come out of the St. Catherine Church,
yonder, on their way to the river which we have crossed. The
river is behind us now, for we are looking nearly north from
our station at the corner of First Line and Middle Prospect.
See how punctiliously every man and boy in the crowd has bared
his head in reverence for the sacred banners and pictures that
are being borne down to the water. Many of these men have
no notion how to read or write, but every one is taught to show
respect for the emblems of the Church faith. Even this white-
aproned apprentice boy near us, returning from some errand
with that tin can and really quite absorbed at just this moment
in staring at us, has taken off his greasy cap in honor of the
approaching ikon.
Everything in Russia is introduced by an ecclesiastical bless-
ing. They make even more of benediction here in Russia than
in the countries where the Latin Church prevails. The Neva
waters are blessed to make them fit to drink. The apple crop
is blessed before anybody ventures to eat apples. The imperial
standards are blessed at the opening of a military review. The
flags are blessed at the beginning of the Nijni Novgorod fair.
Just how this particular blessing of the river water performs its
82 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
mission, these shabby, good-natured folk seldom inquire. Mean-
while, all the world loves a procession. We do, too.
How interesting it is to study faces in a crowd! This man
directly in front of us, turning to look across the street, so that
we see his mild profile, is a thorough Russian, with his thick mop
of hair and his full beard. The small boys over in the middle
of the street, by the car track, are attractive little fellows. How
they do admire and envy the policemen on horseback, who ride
ahead to clear the way for the priests! A good many of the
women in this neighborhood seem to be of the humbler classes,
for they wear kerchiefs on their heads; that is a picturesque,
kerchief -clad head, straight in front of us ! See the young girl
who naively shades her eyes with one hand, the better to gaze,
wonderingly, at our foreign figures; just behind her is the wearer
of the pretty kerchief, a fringed kerchief, probably the owner's
Sunday best, draped effectively about the shoulders, over which
a baby peers. And look at the man who stands with bowed,
bare head, just beyond the kerchiefed mother with the baby. He
has an interesting face; he might be a workingman in one of
Tolstoi's stories. If only we could look at the world for just a
minute through his eyes! It would be a world quite different
from the one you and I know.
The service of blessing the Neva is performed by the priests
of several different churches, all at the same time. Now let us
go and watch that bit of ceremony. We will take our station
near one of the temporary floats put in place for the occasion.
The spot is near the extreme left-hand limit of our first view
of Vasilii Ostrof (Stereograph 20), close by that part of the river
where the little steamboat was plying when we looked off from
KtJSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 83
the roof of the great cathedral. The maps show that we shall be
looking up to the same part of the island front that we saw
before.
23. Blessing the Waters of the Neva, St. Petersburg.
There, off to the right, is the Academy of Sciences. We
shall recognize our new position at once if we take a look at
this building again from our former standpoint on the cathedral
(Stereograph 20).
This floating platform, with its gay decorations, is put in
place for the occasion only. The cross-crowned pavilion is the
place of honor for the ikons and the chief dignitaries. There is
an ikon now; we can see it just over the head of this first man
in the row along the nearer side of the float, standing with his
back to us. The picture is practically a mass of gold and jewels,
only the faces of the Virgin and Child being painted, in sharp
contrast with the glittering metal of their clothes.
Do you see how different the cross over the pavilion is from
the crosses we oftenest see? The uppermost cross-bar represents
the written inscription placed over the head of Christ by the
Jews. The lowermost cross-bar, placed crookedly, has more
than one signification. Sometimes it serves as a reminder of the
earthquake that shook Calvary; again, it is a reminder of an
ancient tradition of the Eastern Church, which says that Chrisf s
was a crippled body, that He had one leg shorter than the other,
taking upon Himself in the flesh all the humiliations and dis-
abilities of physical imperfection. This elaboration of the cross
is very common everywhere in Russia.
$4 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
The priests are gorgeous when arrayed in robes like these,
stiff with embroideries in silk, silver, gold and precious stones.
Their long hair and full beards look strange to our western eyes,
more accustomed to the shaven faces of Roman Catholic prelates ;
and stranger still seems at first the fact that they are married
men. The Black Clergy or monastic brethren are, of course,
vowed to celibacy, but the White Clergy or parish priests are
not merely allowed but definitely required to marry before they
can be ordained. Their income, beyond a certain limited amount
provided by the government, is dependent on the performance
of the official duties of the parishes. Fees for christenings,
marriages, burials and the like bring in large amounts in rich
parishes in the large towns, but out in the country districts many
of the priests have a hard time to make both ends meet. They
do not even have much to hope for through professional promo-
tion, for important positions in the cities are likely to be given
to priests from the monasteries. There are no organs in this
land of the Eastern Church; the music is wonderfully good in its
own way, but it is altogether vocal. Priests and singers are given
long and careful training in the chants and intoned prayers of the
ritual service, and their voices, always strong, are often beautiful
as well
One of the interesting places to visit on Vasilii Ostrof is the
Bourse or Exchange at the eastern end of the island. We shall
go there now. The sectional map shows that we take our stand
first near the Exchange Building, and look back almost directly
south across the river, toward parts of the city we have lately
visited.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 85
24, Palace Bridge, Admiralty and St. Isaac's Church, from
the Exchange.
This is the Palace Bridge close by, so called because it
crosses to the Winter Palace, which stands beyond our limit of
vision on the right. In fact, the bridge leads over to a point
near the farther end of the tree-lined avenue down which we
looked a little while ago when we were standing by the corner
of the Palace itself (Stereograph 13). It is a curious rather
than an imposing structure, this bridge, for it is built in sections,
of wood, and supported on floats, so that the whole structure
can be taken to pieces and put out of the way when ice forms in
the river.
Those are the Admiralty buildings once more, west of the
bridge. They are arranged in a hollow square or rather a
hollow oblong; this is a side opposite the one we saw when we
first looked off from the roof of the cathedral (Stereograph 19).
The slender spire straight in front of us is still conspicuous; we
should recognize it from any new standpoint. The body of St.
Isaac's is hidden by the Admiralty, but how that gigantic dome
does dominate everything else ! They say the sailors often make
it out from away down the Gulf as far as Cronstadt.
Was there ever more lavish use of stone in street construc-
tion? Look at this granite sea-wall, the paved sidewalk, the road-
way, the stone platform and these posts at our feet. They are
a perpetual reminder of the stupendous task the Russians under-
took when they set about building a national capital in this for-*
saken region. All these stones, great and small, were brought
here for their purpose. It was fortunate for St. Petersburg that
rocky Finland was so near. The labor of creating these solid
86
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
quays and streets might have been even greater. We cannot
venture to say that anything would have been actually impossible
with a man like long-headed, rough-and-ready Czar Peter to plan
and execute.
This end of Vasilii Ostrof is devoted to the pursuit of
money. It is the financial centre of Russia. We are standing
on the base of a column; we see the granite blocks at our feet.
Suppose we walk part way around this column now, and see what
is going on in the opposite direction.
25. Bourse Place, Vasilii Ostrof.
We are looking north-north-west here, as our maps make
clear again. At our feet again we have the granite posts, with
chains attached for the protection of the column behind us. Off to
the left is the street-car line which runs, as the sectional map
shows, across the Palace Bridge. It was on our right a few
minutes ago when we were looking back to the Admiralty. We
saw this line also down on our left when near the Winter Palace
(Stereograph 13). It is a busy place here; drays, carts, drosch-
kys, street cars, ships, steamers. That strange construction facing
us is one of the tall Mercury columns that we saw also from the
head of the Nevsky Prospect (Stereograph 13). We are stand-
ing on the pedestal of its lofty mate. At that time tfie two were
almost in line. We saw the column now in front of us when on
St. Isaac's (Stereograph 20). Its queer, beak-shaped decorations
of bronze, set at intervals in the granite shaft, represent the prows
of vessels (Mercury, in the old classical traditions, was the pre-
siding deity of commerce) ; and its summit bears, one hundred
feet above the ground, a group of lanterns often lighted at night
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 87
and visible from a long distance. That cathedral which we see
looming up just beyond the Mercury tower is one of the few
churches in St. Petersburg which show the old-time Russian
predilection for an assemblage of small domes on a single build-
ing. We shall see many more of those oddly grouped domes,
when we go on to Moscow.
Meanwhile, here is the swarming life of St, Petersburg
right around us. This is the best chance we have yet found to
see droschkys at close range. They do not always have hood
tops as here; often in the country towns they are without any
covering whatever and even without any support for the back of
the passenger. These drivers or isvostschicks are perfect types
of their class, sleepy looking fellows with long, bushy hair, stiff
hats and long frocks belted in at the waist. A Russian writer
once said that the typical isvostschick looks as if he had a Turk
for his father and a Quaker for his mother. There seem to be
no definite regulations as to the cost of droschky hire. The
guileless looking driver makes the best bargain that he can,
beginning with a price three times what he will really accept,
and lowering it little *by little, volubly protesting the while that
he is being ruined; and, indeed, he does not make any great
amount of money, take the year together, for the holidays when
droschkys are in great demand are not numerous enough to make
his income roll up to any great amount. These men seldom speak
any language but their own Russian, so the bargaining must be
done in that tongue. Suppose we wish to go over to the Cath-
erine Church (Stereograph 22) ; we call, " Isvostschick ! " and
one of these drivers moves over near us to see what is wanted.
" Perva Linea ee Sredne Prospekt. Skolko Prossesh ? " (First
88 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
Line and Middle Prosepect; how much do you ask?) "Shaist
Greeven." (Thirty cents.) "Aito otchen dorogo; n'yai dahm
bolaiyai dvatset kopeck." (It is too dear; I will give no more
than ten cents.) He looks abused, and protests, " Niet, niet,
treetset kopeck!" (No, no, fifteen cents.) Then we try,
" Dvatset-pyait kopeck." (Twelve-and-a-half cents.) He shakes
his head sorrowfully, and we turn away as if to find another
droschky. He lets us go as long as he thinks we may turn back,
and then calls out, " Pahzshahluyste ! " (Please!) This means
that he accepts our last offer, and we start off. At first he will
drive rather slowly, in order to make us ask him to drive faster
and promise, "Yeslee tee main'ya, pavaiz'yosh paskaraiyai, to-
preebahvlew taibai na vodkoo," (If you drive well, I will add
something for the drink.) Then the sleepy, little horse wakes up
too; the .funny, little vehicle goes spinning along like the very
wind, and we get to our destination in less time than it took to
drive the bargain. We pay him thirty-five kopecks instead of
twenty-five, and he is perfectly satisfied, doffing his hat with
" Rlagahdaryou vahss ! " (I thank you !), and goes off to find an-
other customer, hoping the next one will be as generous in fees
as we were. Sometimes two droschky drivers will compete for
a waiting customer, tossing all sorts of jokes and playful abuse
at each other; but, in the end, they always accept good-naturedly
whatever decision the patron makes.
Job teamsters are numerous too, in this part of the town.
They clamor eagerly over a job in prospect, but they belong to
a labor union, and underbidding has to end at a certain point.
At that point they are likely to draw lots, to see who shall do the
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 89
work. They are vociferous but kindly souls, asking little of life
and it must be confessed getting little.
The harnesses of these wagons and drays are different in
several respects from those to which we are accustomed. See
that trace extending from shaft to axle on the wagon, loaded with
barrels ! It looks as if the main dependence were the tying of
the shafts to the collar, the arched douga, meanwhile, holding
the shafts a little apart, so that they do not actually rub the
sides of the patient beast.
These odd, little street-cars, with the staircase leading up to
the rail-enclosed top, are always interesting. Such double-decked
tram-cars are used all over Europe. It must be much pleasanter
to ride on the outer, upper seats than shut in down below.
Horse-cars, yes, and evidently gas-lights here; but we saw elec-
tric-light poles on the Nevsky Prospect (Stereograph 8) and the
Bolschaya Morskaya (Stereograph n), so we know the city of
the Czar is adopting the newest methods of city house-keeping.
Where do you suppose that fine, large steamship comes from?
And where do you suppose those vessels are going the vessels
whose masts we see as they lie by the quay? Russia's trade is
on the increase, as it must needs be, though her own resources
are nowhere near being fully developed. America's trade with
Russia is at present less than that with the great European
powers. Tools of various sorts are brought in here from America,
but tne American exports to the Czar's land are raw materials,
largely cottons and oils. Russia sends out in return raw wool,
hides, flax and hemp and a share of her precious platinum.
Riga and the other ports on the Baltic take a good deal of the
shipping trade; still, St. Petersburg is itself an important business
90 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
centre. The railroad service is being made more and more
efficient all over the country, and, besides, Russia uses canals
for freight transportation.
We turn now to the Bourse or Exchange Building on our left.
26. The Exchange Building.
This is where big " deals '* are made, in the Exchange Build-
ing, round which our crowd of teams (Stereograph 25) was
gathered. It seems an odd whim to build a Russian Bourse in
the form of an old Greek temple, and flank it with pillars in
honor of the classic god of commerce (Stereograph 25), but
that was the taste of the architects of the first Alexander in
1815. It is as little Russian as the outside of St. Isaac's (Stere-
ograph 18). No, it is to Moscow that we must look for quaint-
ness in the national architecture. There we shall find buildings
with all the flavor of the barbarously splendid old times of Boris
and Ivan the Terrible. Just now we are in Russia-of-the-present
and guessing at Russia-of-the- future. The fortunes that are
made in this Exchange are going to be more and more of a power
behind the Army and the Throne.
When we first looked from the roof of St. Isaac's (Stere-
ograph 19) we saw the spire of the Cathedral of Peter and
Paul far beyond the Admiralty across the river. Now we may
enter that cathedral. It is part of the fortress that occupies
a small island lying north-east of Vasilii Ostrof. The fortress
has been a state prison since the time of its builder, Peter the
Great. It was there his son Alexis was imprisoned for con-
spiracy; there the heir-apparent suddenly and mysteriously died
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 9!
just after a stormy interview with the imperious Czar. Peter
himself was buried in the fortress cathedral, and, with one excep-
tion (his grandson Peter II), all the Russian sovereigns since his
day have been buried under the same roof.
27. Burfal=PIace of the Czars, in the Peter-Paul Church of
the Fortress, St. Petersburg.
The body of the great Peter lies here. Alexander I, who
drove Napoleon's armies out, rests here too, in a tomb com-
memorating the victories of 1812. Alexander II, who freed the
serfs, is buried here. Just before us at the left are hung memorial
wreaths in honor of the late Alexander III, father of the present
Czar, not perishable memorials made of real leaves, but wreaths
executed in gold, silver and jewels, the gifts of monarchs and
princes all over .the world. When M. Faure, then President of
France, visited St. Petersburg to cement the national alliance in
1897, he brought with him an offering for this sacred corner,
an olive branch of gold.
Notice the two ikons at this nearest (left) corner of the wall.
One hangs low, nearly facing us, the other is at right angles
to the first facing the open space in the middle of the church,
and each one has a lamp hanging before it according to the
reverent custom of the place. That must be still another ikon
on the wall just this side of the balcony-like pulpit. Almost all
these ikons were painted by priests in certain Russo-Greek
monasteries. The people love them in spite of, or possibly be-
cause of, their strange stiffness and ceremonial rigidity. In
Russian eyes they are far holier than Raphael's Madonnas or the
frescoes of Fra Angelico.
92 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
An old Russian song in vogue after the death of Peter the
Great pictures the feelings of one of the cathedral guards stand-
ing in this spot where we are now :
" In our holy Russia, in the glorious town of Peter, in the Cathedral
of Peter and Paul, on the right side, by the tombs of the Czars, a young
soldier was on duty. Standing there he thought, and thinking, he
began to weep. He wept ; it was a river that flowed. He sobbed ;
it was the throb of waves. Bathed in tears he cried : ' Alas, open, ye
bands of coffins! Open, ye golden coverlets, and thou, O orthodox
Czar, do thou awake ; do thou arise ! Look, master, on thy guard ;
contemplate all thine army ; see how the regiments are disciplined,
how the colonels are with the regiments, and all the majors with their
horses, the captains at the head of their companies, the officers leading
their divisions, the ensigns supporting the standards. They wait
for thee!' "
The sacred pictures, or ikons f that we see on the wall at the
left are characteristic of Russian churches. If we were near
enough to see these in detail we should find them representing
sacred personages in the same stiff, conventional manner, the
faces and hands painted, and all the rest of the picture a mass
of gold, silver and precious stones. Thousands upon thousands
of dollars' worth of jewels are often set into and around an ikon
specially reverenced on account of its miracle-working powers.
The Russian Church, as a rule, discourages sculptured representa-
tions of divine or saintly persons; but the devout pray before
an ikon just as their brethren in the Latin Church pray before
a crucifix, a statue or a painted picture.
We see no seats here, but that is not an exceptional arrange-
ment due to the presence of the imperial tombs. There are
never any .seats for the worshippers in a Russian church. All
through the long ritual service it may be one hour, two, three,
perhaps longer still on some great occasion we should have to
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 93
stand; every Russian, even the Czar himself, stands or kneels
according to the movement of the ritual. The priests we saw
some of them at the open-air service, 'blessing the waters (Ste-
reograph 23) are magnificently robed, and the singing is almost
always beautiful. There is a great deal in the Russian church
service to impress and awe the bystander, even though he was
born and bred in an alien faith.
Let us take one last look at this rich interior of the Fortress
Cathedral with its distant altar and candles, its cavernous, dusky
roof, and its cold marble floor, under which the bodies of the
Czars lie ranged, and go out again under the blue sky into the
sunshine.
In midsummer, everybody who can afford it goes away
from the large cities to the seashore or the country. The royal
family set the fashion by maintaining country residences, and
the rich folk have their own villas and country seats. Besides,
there is, of course, a permanent rural population surrounding the
towns; and the contrast of high life and low life thus afforded
is often most striking.
Let us go out a little way into the country, and get a
glimpse of the simple, commonplace, out-of-door life of the
peasants, as a balance for the royal magnificence and gloomy
splendor of the tombs of the Czars.
For some time now we shall have occasion to make frequent
reference to the map "Environs of St. Petersburg." The rect-
angles in red on this map, as on the general map of Russia,
indicate the sections which are shown on a larger scale on other
94 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
maps. The place we are about to go to now is found on this map
a few miles to the north-west of St. Petersburg, near Lakhta.
28. Making Hay in Russia.
Here, for instance, only a few miles outside St. Petersburg,
we see a bit of characteristic country life. During harvest-times
men and women often work together in the fields as we see them
here. As in most European countries, the women do their share
(possibly more than their share) of the rougher labor. In sum-
mer they often work bare-headed as we see them now, though
those gay plaid kerchiefs, knotted about the necks of their calico
gowns, do service for head-gear when needed.
Here in the country, just as in town, the men almost univer-
sally wear cloth caps with visors, and blouses loosely tied in
around the waist above well-worn trousers.
Aren't those wooden rakes primitive, clumsy affairs? And
still more primitive is the way in which the women gather up
great loads of hay by hand, and carry it themselves to their little
barns for storage. What would these simple plodders think if
they could see the modern farm machinery of our own country?
Almost all agricultural labor here in Russia is done at a great
disadvantage with the poorest and most out-of-date tools; for,
in the first place, these simple, kindly folk do not know there
are any better helps; in the second place, if they did know it,
few of them have money to buy improved machinery; and, in
the third place, they are a conservative set; if they had both
the information and the money, the chances are that they would
for a time cling to the old, unhandy ways, saying dully : " What' s
the use?"
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 95
Public education has not yet spread so far out from the
cities, or so far down through the ranks, as to do much for these
descendants of the serfs; they have not yet waked up. But, if
we are inclined to criticise the system of a country where too
much education turns one class of citizens into Nihilists, and
too little education leaves another class plodding dullards, it
might be a good idea to remember that it is only forty years since
the peasants were freed from serfdom, and that it takes time to
bring about the right educational balance when one has one
hundred and thirty-two million people to educate! That is the
case with His Imperial Majesty, Nicholas II, at present.
The Russian system of peasant land-holding is a curious
experiment in communistic ownership under an autocratic govern-
ment. Each village is allotted a certain quantity of land, and the
village commune, or Mir (composed of the peasants themselves),
is responsible to the State for a certain amount of taxes, seventeen
dollars a year from each head of a family, married man, or
widow. Every head of a family is not only allowed but obliged
to hold some amount of land; the amount is intended to be
regulated by the number of persons belonging to the family.
Nearly four hundred million acres of Russian land are thus in
the hands of the peasantry; but, as a rule, the peasant land-
holder has no permanent right to any particular piece of land,
only to a certain share of the whole village tract. The family
shares may be re-distributed once in a certain number of years,
at the pleasure of the village council, though every land-holder
is himself a part of the Mir and can cast a vote regarding any
question brought up for general discussion. The chairman of
the Mir is a person of local importance, and the happiness or
96 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
misery of a village depends to a great extent on his personal
character.
Why do not the more enterprising of these young fellows
with the hay-rakes go off to make their fortunes in the large
towns? Some of them do, and become rich in trades of various
sorts; but it is not always an easy matter for a Russian country-
man to seek " fresh woods and pastures new." Whether he goes
or stays, a peasant land-holder belonging to a village commune
must pay his share of the land tax. If his payments fail while
he is seeking his fortune in St. Petersburg or Moscow, he may
be summoned by the village police and summarily sent back to
his acres by the city authorities. Our Russian-with-the-hoe has
to confront difficulties somewhat more complicated than those
of his brethren in other lands.
But even the Russian-with-the-hoe has a future, and his
future is coming in over those steel rails that cross the fields
in front of us. It is coming by way of the telegraph wires that
we see reaching from pole to pole over these interminable plains.
Where the railroad and the telegraph come, a better civilization
follows, and Russia is making enormous strides in her forward
progress. Forty years ago there were hardly five hundred miles
of railroad in all Russia. Today there are over twenty-seven
thousand miles in actual operation, and at least seven thousand
more in process of construction. In 1899 the government ex-
pended sixty-five million dollars on the extension of railroads
alone. They cannot be built in a day, nor can they bring modern
ideas and New World prosperity in a day; but the better times
are coming.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 97
The country round about St. Petersburg needs a good deal
of encouragement from mankind to make it smile. Its habitual
expression is rather serious and doubtful. But where time and
money have been spent upon it a sort of northern fairy-land has
blossomed. Suppose we turn the other way move down across
the Gulf towards the south-west, to Peterhof, and see what"
Peter and his royal successors have succeeded in making of rural
Russia in the vicinity of their own summer homes.
The imperial family have many residences. The Winter
Palace (Stereograph 13) is a ceremonial home, a place for court
balls and other formal festivities in the height of the social
season; but the Czar and his household are really most at home
in the summer palaces of Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo, country-
suburbs,, a few miles west from St. Petersburg proper. Suppose
we go to Peterhof first. We shall catch glimpses of some great
people there, and we shall see charming gardens, well worth the
trouble of a short journey.
On the map "Environs of St. Petersburg " Peterhof is found
about ten miles west of the capital city. To keep our bearings
while about the Summer Palace we shall need to follow closely
the special map "Peterhof." We shall stand first, as we find
on this map, nearly half way between the landing stage and the
Grand Chateau or Peterhof Palace, and look south along the
canal to the palace front.
29. The Avenue of Fountains, ^Imperial Palace of Peterhof,
Russia.
Is not the Emperor's garden like a bit of fairy-land? For
fifteen hundred feet this gay, little canal is lined with fountains,
9& RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
trees and gilded statues. That is Peterhof Palace at the head
of the canal. We might guess from its name and from these
elaborately constructed water-works that adorn the grounds,
that the place is another monument to the aquatic tastes and the
endless ingenuity of Peter the Great. There is no use in trying
to get away from the reach of his personality in and about St.
Petersburg. It is everywhere.
The fountains at the head of the canal almost hide the palace
from where we stand. We can go nearer if we like, almost
among those feathery jets of water. The tallest one, in the center,
is fully eighty feet high.
30. Peterhof Palace, the Czar's Summer Residence.
It looks as if this great stairway might be as wet as the
ascent of the bed of the Imatra Rapids (Stereograph 5) ; but
the people, as you see, can walk at the foot of the terrace among
the fountains, assuring us as to the existence of some dry avenue
of passage. The fact is, the water has its own staircase, and
people have another just beyond. It must be a beautiful sight
to see when the fountains are illuminated on special festival days.
There is an air of frank gayety about the place which is very
attractive.
Peterhof is, during the summer, a centre of interest to trav-
ellers on account of its occupancy by the royal family. The
present monarch does not spend nearly all the summer at Peter-
hof, but he and the gracious Empress often receive here their
guests of honor.
We will climb now on the left of the fountains to the road
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 99
which runs along the front of the Palace. The map shows that
we shall be looking toward the west or toward our right here.
31. Equipages before Peterhof Palace.
It is a common thing to see this larch-bordered avenue full
of carriages as now. These happen to bring, not soldiers nor
diplomats nor political magnates, but members of a Geological
Commission visiting Russia during the summer (1897).
The Palace itself certainly is not especially beautiful. Rus-
sian architecture of the last two hundred years has not much to
recommend it or distinguish it from showy, florid building in
other parts of Europe. It is only when we see Moscow that we
shall really know characteristic Russian architecture. And it is
worth knowing. The fantastic dome crowning the cupola yonder
is a hint of what we are to see in Moscow.
The Russians themselves tell a good story about how the
Czar Nicholas I one day asked a certain sentry whom he found
pacing up and down a certain beat here in the Peterhof park,
why he was stationed at that particular spot. The sentry did
not know; he was ordered there; that was all. The Czar asked
the officer in charge. The guard did not know. It had always
been customary to keep a sentry perpetually pacing that par-
ticular path. The inquiry was pushed still farther back, to
officers who knew only the unbroken tradition; and at last it
was found that, away back in the eighteenth-century days of
Catherine IT, a sentry had been set to guard a certain rosebud
which the empress desired to see unfold, and, as the order for a
guard had never been formally revoked, there had been a guard
ever since. "Theirs not to question why!"
100 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
The visiting geologists, whose carriages we see here are,
by virtue of their profession, living interrogation points. Ah,
well, it takes all sorts of people to make up a world.
This meeting with the Geological Commission is an inter-
esting incident. Our main purpose in coming up to the palace
itself is to see the fountains from still another standpoint. Of
course, the fountains are on our right here ; we have only to turn
in that direction to have them spread out before us. According
to the map we shall then be facing north.
32. The Fountains, from Peterhof Palace.
Surely there is nothing on earth more beautiful in its way
than water dancing in the sun ! And here the statues that seem
to be playing with the waters are gilded so that they gleam and
glitter through the spray, giving a double effect of gayety. It
is, perhaps, a childish sort of spectacle. The Russians are frankly
fond of striking colors and bright, glittering, shining things, like
a nation of good-natured children, and we certainly have no
notion of criticising them for it here; the whole scene has such
an air of enticing gayety. The feathery larches and fir trees
are not tall enough to give any effect of cathedral sombreness.
They only offer green shade in contrast to the glitter and gleam
and splashing jollity of the fountains.
Some sculptor has connected these bronze water-sprites with
this most spectacular collection of fountains in many ingenious
ways.
Away at the farther end of the canal we see the shore of the
Gulf of Finland, for Peterhof is a seaside resort. We will go
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. IOI
down on the Czar's pier presently, for important guests are com-
ing and going. Perhaps we may catch a glimpse of them.
But what is it they tell us? The Czarina and the Empress
of Germany are driving through the park, and we must hurry if
we wish to see them. Dancing fountains are beautiful, but live
empresses are still more attractive to us austere republican folks !
They are to be found in the park off to our right.
33. Their Majesties the Empresses of Russia and Germany
Driving through Peterhof Park.
It is the Czarina who sits nearest to us. The Empress of
Germany is at her right hand.
The Czarina is said to be both lovely and lovable, the sort
of woman whom we could wish to see on a throne. She has three
little daughters, but there is as yet (1901) no Czarevitch or Crown
Prince. She herself was the daughter of the Grand Duke of
Hesse-Darmstadt and Princess Alice of England, which makes
her Victoria's granddaughter and a niece of King Edward VII.
When she was married she followed the custom of new Czarinas,
and took a Russian name, Alexandra Feodorovna. The Emperor
of Germany is her own cousin, for his mother was the Princess
Royal of England, Victoria's eldest daughter. The German
Empress was Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
It is not often that such great people visit their cousins.
The European papers (1897) have been full of the doings of the
last day or two since their Imperial Majesties came from Ger-
many. Receptions, reviews, state dinners, it means hard work
in its way to wear a crowned head.
102 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
This carnage that the Czarina uses today is comparatively
simple; but the one in which she rode through Moscow to her
coronation, that was like the carriages in Aladdin's "stable, if,
indeed, Aladdin kept horses as well as magic travelling carpets.
The coach itself was gilded like the most elegant of jewel boxes,
drawn by eight snow-white stallions in gilded harness, their
heads decorated with snowy ostrich feathers. It must have been
a gorgeous sight, but, after all, this more modest equipage suits
the gentle lady very well. Good fortune to her!
There are all sorts of odd, little pavilions and cottages scat-
tered through these grounds, associated in one way or another
with the studies and recreations of different royal personages.
We shall see one in another part of the grounds.
34. Narcissus Fountain, on Empress Island, Peterhof,
The Peterhof gardens are full of statues; the fountains
themselves are often of statuary, half hidden while the waters
play. The waters are so beautiful we forgive them for hiding
the statuary; but when once in a while we come upon a basin
where the water is not turned on, it is likely to be worth looking
at. This is one of the designs most admired for the ingenuity of
its idea and the grace with which the idea has been carried out.
Narcissus, we remember, was the youth in the old Greek story
whom Nemesis punished for his cold temperament, making him
learn to his sorrow how it feels to be hopelessly in love. The
poor boy was bewitched by the beauty of his own reflection in a
fountain; he gazed upon it, breathed vows and petitions to it,
but sighed and swore in vain, for the charming image would
never come up out of the water to meet him.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 103
And here he is, poor lad, watching for the enchanting reflec-
tion to reappear, as it will do when the gardener turns the water
on once more.
If we had time, we would go into this pavilion near by, for
it is modeled after the old Pompeian houses. But we will not
spare the time for it now.
Again comes the word that there is something to see; this
time it is the Russian Imperial Guard down on the pier at the
end of the canal (Stereograph 31), waiting for the German
Emperor to embark for St. Petersburg.
35. The Russian Imperial Guard Awaiting the German
Emperor, Peterhof Pier.
We might know this was a holiday occasion, for these sol-
diers, each one ready for a fight to the death when the right
time comes, are just now taking life easily without over-strict
adherence to the etiquette of " eyes front." See, several of these
stiff, bearded fellows are looking this way with smiling curiosity.
There are both German and Russian flags floating in the light
breeze which blows up the Gulf of Finland.
The map shows we are looking west on the pier. So St.
Petersburg is still farther up the Gulf back of us (east).
The yacht Alexandria is lying here alongside the pier. That
is a bit of her bows at the right.
Russia's main strength lies in her men, trained to fight for
God and the Czar. Every man over twenty-one is liable to be
called into the army. They are drilled to the last point of obe-
dient effectiveness, fearing nothing, enduring anything, and filled
with almost fanatical faith in the righteous certainty that the Czar
104 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
must always win. It is said that there are some fifty thousand
officers in the Russian army. These officers seldom, if ever,
rise to their position from a place in the ranks. Certain social
as well as soldierly qualifications are necessary to the holder of
an officer's commission. Indeed, there are a number of dis-
tinguished foreigners in the Russian service. Curiously enough
(curiously, considering the old-time attitude of France and
Russia), Louis Napoleon, the second son of Princess Clothilde,
is a colonel of the Czarina's Lancers. How times do change!
The royal guests are about leaving Peterhof, so we will go
too, returning to St. Petersburg in hopes to catch another glimpse
of them there. Wilhelm II and the Empress Augusta Victoria
will be in the city for a day or two longer.
36. The Yacht Alexandria, Conveying the German Emperor,
Passing the German Cadet Ship Chariotta.
It is fortunate that we hurried back from Peterhof. We are
in time to see the royal yacht Alexandria with the German Em-
peror on board. First, though, we should understand our location.
Turn to the general map of St. Petersburg, and look for the St.
Nicholas bridge over the Great Neva, some distance to the left,
or west, of the Palace bridge, which we have seen before. A
little to the left of this Nicholas bridge on the south bank of the
Neva is found a red circle enclosing the number 36, and from
this point our two red lines branch out toward the north-east,
indicating our location. Now we can point out some familiar
landmarks in the scene before us.
That is the Nicholas bridge yonder, in front of us, at the
right, and beyond the bridge to the left of that first tall mast,
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 105
we can make out the needle-pointed spire of the fortress cath-
edral of Peter and Paul, We saw that spire once before, from
the roof of St. Isaac's (Stereograph 19), but we were a little
nearer to it then. By the way, Kaiser Wilhelm himself has just
been over there to visit the burial place of the Czars in the
cathedral; he brought from Berlin a memorial wreath for the
tomb of the Czar's father, Alexander III (Stereograph 27). St.
Isaac's and the Admiralty are away off at our right, not quite
in range as we stand here.
The large building on the river bank, opposite where we are
now, is the Art Academy which we have also seen before from
another point on the roof of St. Isaac's (Stereograph 21).
And here conies the Alexandria^ bearing the Czar with Kai-
ser Wilhelm as his guest. It was this Alexandria that met the
German visitors off Kronstadt the day of their arrival in their
own German vessel, and she has been at their service ever since.
The Czar's uncle, the Grand Duke Alexis, is the Russian High
Admiral, but, while they were crossing over from Kronstadt to
Peterhof, Wilhelm II was created by courtesy an Admiral of
the Russian fleet. It was a graceful way to play with rather large
commissions.
Don't you envy those German cadets on the Charlotta ? Who
would not be a sailor-boy if he could perch picturesquely in mid-
air as these lads are doing, to salute the heads of the two great
nations, Russia and Germany, as they go by? All the same, one
would need a sailor's steady nerves to stand like a decorative
flag-staff on one of those dizzy yards, as those boys are proudly
doing. It is devoutly to be hoped that none of these boys may
ever sail tip the Neva on any less peaceful occasion than the
IO6 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
We cannot follow royalty everywhere, but we are fortunate
enough to be admitted to certain ceremonies in the court-yard
of the Alexander Hospital. The institution is under German
management, and this visit of the Emperor and Empress nat-
urally tends to give it special prestige. It is situated over on
the island, not far back from the river, but beyond our range of
vision on the left, as we see on the map.
37. Founding of the Alexander Hospital, St. Petersburg,
by the Emperor and Empress of Germany.
Are we not fortunate? We do not exactly occupy front
seats at this spectacle, but, better than that, we are precisely
opposite the "front seats," or place of honor, where we can
see the royal guests very well. That is Kaiser Wilhelm, the
sovereign of the great German Empire, standing on the portico at
the right of the head of the stairs. See, his breast is covered with
decorations, and he holds some sort of paper in his hand. It is the
Empress Augusta Victoria who stands next to him, and the ladies
in the background are all court beauties, with enough titles and
blue blood to populate, a whole library of novels of European
high life. Do you see that tall, bearded man at the extreme right,
almost behind the trunk of this tree out in the court-yard? He
is the Russian Grand Duke Michael, a brother of Alexander II
and great-uncle to the present Czar, the General Field-Marshal
and Chief of Artillery. It must be a strange experience to come
near being the autocrat of one-seventh of the whole earth, and
yet never quite mount the throne. Wouldn't it be interesting
to know what these great folk think in their own hearts about
the drama in which they are cast for such prominent roles? Do
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE, IO7
they always take themselves seriously, always think of them-
selves in capital letters, as it were? It must be immensely dif-
ficult if indeed it be possible for an Emperor to put the habitual
attitude of the public quite out of his consciousness and feel
just as any other man would feel; that is, it must be difficult
after one is grown up. They tell here in Russia a pretty story
of a little daughter of stern Nicholas I, who said one day to
the monarch whose frowns were something unspeakable, " I know,
dear papa, you have no wish greater than to make mamma happy."
Dear little maid ! But she never lived to grow up.
The choir-men here in front of us are all ready with their
music. There is to be a solemn religious service, and, after it
is over, the great Russian dignitaries are to be formally presented
to the German sovereigns. As for us, we are neither Russian
nor great, so this will be our own nearest view of their Majes-
ties. At all events, we have had our glimpse of the august heads
of the vast German empire. That is what we came for. And it
is our last opportunity, too, for the royal visit is about to end.
It is not, however, the end of our opportunity to see great
people of one sort or another, for at the time we are seeing St.
Petersburg (1897) the Czar and the Czarina welcome the com-
ing almost while they speed the parting guest. The decorations
which we saw in Peterhof Park (Stereograph 33) have already
been hastily remodeled to do honor to another guest, M. Felix
Faure, President of the Republic of France. Wherever the
initials of Wilhelm had appeared, there are now emblazoned the
letters R. F. (Republique Frangaise), and the black-white-and-red
flags of Germany have been taken down and replaced by the
108 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
French tricolor. It is a good thing for the public treasury that
the decorations can thus easily be made over and so serve a
second time. Their first installation must have cost a pretty
penny.
President Faure also has, so we hear, been met at Kron-
stadt by the Czar and the Grand Duke Alexis, and taken on board
the Alexandria to Peterhof. From Peterhof he has come to St.
Petersburg. The mayor of the city has offered him bread and
salt, symbolic of the hospitality of the metropolis, and now one
function rapidly succeeds another in the programme arranged
for his entertainment or in his honor.
One of the most important and significant courtesies ex-
tended to President Faure is the Czar's invitation to assist in
laying the corner-stone of the new Troitsky bridge over the
Neva. The old bridge is a movable affair made of wood, some-
what after the fashion of the Palace bridge which we inspected
from near the Exchange on Vasilii Ostrof (Stereograph 24).
The new one is to be of permanent form and materials. It had
been planned to make the new bridge the text for special festivi-
ties in honor of the silver wedding of Alexander III; but when
man even a Czar proposes, it is still God who disposes. Alexan-
der's body is laid away in the cathedral of Peter and Paul (Ster-
eograph 27), and it is Alexander's son who sits on the throne
when the great day comes. All that President Faure could do for
the Czar Alexander was to bring a golden olive branch to lay
upon his tomb in that corner we so well remember in the fortress
cathedral.
Either the general map of St. Petersburg or the map of
the central section of the city will indicate the place where we
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. log
are to see this most interesting ceremony. We find the Troitsky
bridge about as far to the east as the Nicholas bridge was to the
west of the Palace bridge. The corner-stone laying is to be near
the southern end of the bridge.
38. The Czar of Russia and the French President Laying
the Corner=stone of the Troitsky Bridge.
The Neva river is behind us. We are looking nearly south,
facing the city proper. And what a crowd of Russian celebrities !
This gorgeously arrayed personage with the jewelled dome
of a crown and robes stiff with embroidery is the. highest acting
official of the Russian Church, Monseigneur Palladius, the
Metropolitan of St. Petersburg. The Czar is esc officio head of
the Church in a certain sense, but the Metropolitan is its head
so far as practical facts are concerned, being the presiding officer
of the Synod, under whose jurisdiction all questions of ecclesi-
astical polity are decided. And here is the great Nicholas him-
self, directly facing the Metropolitan. He looks just like the
pictures we have seen ; we should know him at once. His simple,
soldierly costume seems wholly unassuming, compared with the
Metropolitan's splendor, even with all the decorations on his
breast. His close-trimmed full beard is just as we have seen it
in his portraits, and he has the same way of looking straight out
from under his eyebrows. He looks like a soldier and a gentle-
man. What a frightful weight of responsibility there is resting
on those square shoulders of his! To think that the lives and
fortunes of over a hundred and thirty million people (almost
twice as many as the whole population of the United States)
are absolutely at his disposal ! We free-and-easy, as-good-as-the-
HO RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
next-man Americans can hardly realize the different conditions
that prevail in Russia, our customary modes of thought are so
unlike those of the land of the Czar. An American, talking
with a prominent Russian not long ago about the importance of
the construction of the great Trans-Siberian railway and its
prospective opening of a way for Russian troops and supplies
to reach the open seas, observed that, after all, it would be dif-
ficult to utilize the railroad fully, in an emergency, for the trans-
portation of any considerable number of men or amounts of
supplies, because of insufficiency of rolling-stock. " You don't
understand at all," said the Russian. " If it were so ordered,
every railway car in the empire would be taken for the purpose."
" But the damage to general business " " That would not be
considered. If the thing were necessary it would simply be
done."
But it is not within the bounds of human possibility for
any one man, even Nicholas II, to personally originate or even
to investigate fully all the projects of the government. Some of
the other men whom we see here before us are actually a part
of the autocracy, its vital organs.
That is President Felix Faure at the Czar's right hand,
exactly facing us, the simple republican in the plain coat, just
such as our own Chief Executive might wear. He is, of course,
the guest of honor. The man at the Czar's left hand, with the
full gray beard and dark hair, a cluster of decorations on his
coat, is the Lord Mayor of St. Petersburg. He is the official who
proffered to President Faure on his arrival the traditional bread-
and-salt, as, indeed, he had done a few days previously for the
German Emperor and Empress.
But let us see who else is here.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. Ill
Look over to the left of the group first. At the extreme left,
in the front row of spectators, do you see that middle-aged man
in uniform, with shoulder-straps, a gilt belt and decorations on
his coat he has turned his head away to speak to another by-
stander? That is the Grand Duke Constantine, a cousin of the
Czar. The man behind him, facing towards the left, is the Czar's
uncle, the Grand Duke Paul. The decorated officer facing Con-
stantine (the one with a high, bare forehead) is another uncle,
the Grand Duke Alexis, High Admiral of the Russian fleet.
He is the one who went down to Kronstadt with the Czar on the
Alexandria to welcome in turn both the German sovereigns and
the French President. Then there is an elderly man at the left
of Alexis, or at his left hand, wearing huge, fringed epaulets,
with a broad sash across his chest, and more decorations. He is
Vice-Admiral Tyrtoff, the Minister of the Navy,
Yes, there is another most important person just behind the
vice-admiral. Do you see just over the fringed epaulet on the
vice-admiral's left shoulder that man with the short, white beard
and the high, square roof of a head, a man who looks as if a good
deal might be going on inside that same head? Look at Mm
twice. He is Vannofski, the Minister "of War (in 1897), a mem-
ber of the Imperial Council and next to the Czar the leading
member of the Committee on the Trans-Siberian Railway and,
in 1901, appointed Minister of Public Instruction.
Prince Bieloselsky is a distinguished looking man. He is
the handsome, tall, bearded officer whom we can see just over
the crowned head of Monseigneur the Metropolitan. You can
identify him by the many horizontal bars of gilt braid over the
breast of his coat and the broad sash which crosses his chest
112 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
diagonally from the left shoulder. His dignified head hardly
needs a crown like that of Monseigneur Palladius.
The plainer person just behind Prince Bieloselsky's right
shoulder at Minister Vannofski's left hand is a prominent
officer, General Boisdeffre. The light in his eyes makes him
scowl a bit. Yes, there is still another famous officer, General
Gervais, the rather thin-faced, care-worn man with epaulets and
sash and decorations, who stands just behind handsome Prince
Bieloselski's left shoulder.
The notables are really too many for us to note them all.
Every man here is Somebody-in-Particular, somebody whose
birth or official position, or both, entitle him to the greatest
honors of the capital. And the people on the grand-stand and
the balconies are important too. Grand duchesses and princesses
are as thick as blackberries here today, and one must needs be
very great indeed to be much noticed.
How President Fare's simple republican dignity does stand
out in contrast with the magnificence of his hosts! People
count it a very significant courtesy on the Czar's part, this invita-
tion of the French President to assist in these consecration cere-
monies. It is generally understood that it indicates a definitely
friendly alliance of the two nations, the French and the Russian.
So it is not merely a gay holiday show at which we are gazing
here. It is an outward sign of a serious political attitude which
may prove to be of vast importance to France, to Russia, to all
Europe, even, it may be, to the whole civilized world. Nobody
can yet tell how far the widening ripples from this little courtesy
are going to spread.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 113
President Fatire has not long to stay. His first day was
spent in receptions at Peterhof. His second day has seen the
laying of the corner-stone of the Troitsky bridge. Next he is
invited to review the Russian troops at Krasnoe Selo, a few miles
outside the city. We will go see the review too ; but, on the way,
we shall have time for a glimpse of some other interesting places
in the city and the region round about.
On our way to the railway station we can see one more
St. Petersburg church, the famous cathedral of the Holy Trinity.
This is found on the general map, nearly a mile and a half directly
south of the Admiralty.
39. The Soldiers' Church, St. Petersburg, with the Monu=
ment of Turkish Cannon.
It reminds us of St. Isaac's, though it is not so large, and
its domes are differently arranged. Besides, St. Isaac's great
central dome was covered with gold-leaf, and these five clustered
roofs are all sky blue, sprinkled thick with stars of gold. Russia
does delight in gay effects of color.
This church itself is less than seventy years old, but it stands
on the site of an older chapel where Peter the Great wedded his
lowly born Catherine, a match of doubtful promise according to
general principles of suitability, but it turned out well, for the
Empress made up in tact and good sense what she lacked in
birth, education and breeding.
This present church was consecrated in 1835 and specially
attached to the Ismailof Regiment of Guards, so it is popularly
known as the Soldiers' Church. Indeed, one is reminded here
more of war on earth than of peace in heaven, for the golden
yI4 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
stars and crosses are nowhere near as impressive as that unique
monument facing it in the square. That monument is a memorial
of the Russian victories over Turkey in 1877. St. Petersburg
delights in monuments, and this one meant a good deal, for
all those vertical columns that combine to make - up the suc-
cessive sections or stories of the metal shaft are cannon cap-
tured from the Turks. Counting the granite base and the
bronze figure of Victory on the summit, with her laurel wreath
in one hand and an olive branch in the other, the whole monu-
ment is nearly one hundred feet high.
It was a great war, that war of 1877 with Turkey. It came
near being much greater than it was, too, for if the other
European Powers had not interfered, in all human probability
the Russians would have taken Constantinople and made the
dream of the nation come true at last, that is, gained possession
of the coveted door to the Mediterranean Sea.
The time is not yet.
To come down to trifles, what is that wagon yonder, just
coming towards us around the corner near the monument ? Surely
a sort of wagon built like ordinary European and American
vehicles, and the horse has no douga nodding over his shoulders.
We have become so used to things Russian that it is a genuine
surprise to see something so much like home.
Not far from Peterhof is another summer resort of the im-
perial family, Tsarskoe Selo (The Czar's Village). It has been
a favorite retreat of city people ever since the beginnings of life
in St. Petersburg. The little town is only fifteen miles from the
metropolis, and the fact that the imperial family spend some
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 115
time here every year attracts each season a large colony of sum-
mer residents and a troop of summer visitors. There are two
especially interesting palaces at Tsarskoe Selo, belonging to the
royal family. We shall see both of them.
Again we must have recourse to the map "Environs of St.
Petersburg." There we find Tsarskoe Selo about fifteen miles
south of the main city.
40. The Alexander Palace, Tsarskoe Selo.
We come in sight of one of these palaces, the Alexander
Palace, as we cross the Lesser Garden of the Imperial Park.
It certainly looks like a delightful house, and it is no wonder
the great Alexander was so fond of it. They say he used to
live very simply here, with little show or state. One day in his
time an English lady was walking down this path where we are
now, when two dogs that were being exercised by a gentleman
near by ran up to her with doggish curiosity ; she was frightened,
and their owner, seeing this, called them off and apologized to
her for their bad manners. He seemed a very kindly and agree-
able person, so the Englishwoman, being anxious to see all the
sights intelligently, asked him all sorts of questions about the
palace and the different pavilions and monuments in the grounds.
" But most of all," she confided to him, " I want to see the Em-
peror. Where do you suppose I could catch a glimpse of him? "
" Oh, you will very likely see him around here somewhere," her
guide assured her. " He often walks here." She passed on and
later met an officer, to whom she repeated her question about the
Emperor. "That was the Emperor himself, madam," said the
officer, "the gentleman with the dogs."
Il6 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
The same simplicity and hospitality are still kept up in this
lovely, rambling park. These little folks sitting on the bank
are children of the people, and this park is practically a free,
open playground for them and such as they, with boats and
swings and all sorts of out-of-door games freely at their com-
mand. The privilege does not seem to be abused either, for these
embryo Russians, while they love to romp and run like human
children the world over, seem to have naturally gentler manners
than our young Americans, and can be trusted to keep out of
uncouth pranks and destructive mischief.
The young Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses have their fun
here, too. The Duchess of Edinburgh, Victoria's daughter-in-law,
is an aunt of the present Czar Nicholas. When she was a little
girl the size of our shy friend here on the grass, she used to play
about here with her dolls. She and her brothers planted a good
many of the willows that grow so abundantly alongside the water-
courses (is not that a beautiful tree growing out over the wa-
ter?) ; for they had the pretty custom of setting out the pussy-
willow twigs that were given to them at church every Palm
Sunday.
Continuing our walk to the part of the park known as the
Old Garden, we come to a larger palace, an immense range of
apartments with a frontage of nearly eight hundred feet.
41. The Largest of the Imperial Palaces, Tsarskoe Seld.
They say that once upon a time, in the reign of the great
Catherine II (1762-1796), all the sculptured carvings on this
huge fagade were covered with gold-leaf, making the building as
gorgeous as a giant's jewel-box. It was Catherine's way of keep-
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 117
ing up to the luxurious standard of European court life in the
days when Louis XV set the pace.
The bulb-shaped domes, clustered on the roof yonder, show
the location of a chapel where the royal family worship on spe-
cial occasions. If we were to go in, we should find ikons set up
to guide their devotions, and an open space in which the royal
worshippers may stand or kneel. The palace apartments as
we might imagine from the outside are almost endless in num-
ber (just count the windows that we can see from this one
spot) ; and they are furnished like the most wildly extravagant
rooms in the fairy-tales of our childhood. One has a floor of
ebony inlaid with mother-of-pearl in elaborate patterns, and
walls incrusted with lapis-lazuli. Another has its walls entirely
covered with panels of amber curiously cut and carved in high
relief. It is a dream of regal recklessness, and sets off in strong
contrast the comparatively quiet tastes of the present Czar.
We are becoming so used to the little droschkys as to take
them as a matter of course; and really they are indispensable if
one wishes to cover the ground quickly. Many of these droschky
drivers, as we find, on talking with them, do not own their
teams, but have contracts with an employer. They are obliged
to pay to him a certain amount each day, so much for ordinary
days, twice as much for festival days; their own share is the
difference between this amount paid over and the amount re-
ceived from patrons. Sometimes they come out badly in bal-
ancing the accounts. But they are, for the most part, a good-
natured set, and take life as it comes, thankful that hard times
are no harder.
Il8 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
42. The Lake and island in the Imperial Grounds, Tsars koe
Seto.
We have here jtist one more glimpse of the beautiful park
before we go over to the great parade grounds. We could not
go without seeing the lake; everybody goes rowing or sailing
on the lake. Men are always in readiness to take visitors out
without charge, as the guests of the Czar. See that row-boat
crossing the lake and almost opposite the monument, with the
odd, beak-shaped decorations. Can it be? It looks as if it
had for passengers the same children whom we saw only a little
while ago, sitting on the bank near that big willow tree, over by
the Alexander Palace (Stereograph 40).
That pavilion over at the farther end of the lake is the
Alexandrina pavilion, named for a little daughter of Nicholas I
who used to go there to feed the swans.
Now if we wish to see something of the military review, we
must drive over to Krasnoe Selo, or go by train ; for crowds are
already assembling to witness the annual display. Every August
a review of some forty or fifty thousand troops takes place, be-
ginning with a solemn benediction of the national flags by the
Metropolitan. This time, the presence of the French President
gives the occasion special distinction.
Turning to our map of the environs of St. Petersburg again
we find Krasnoe Selo some ten miles to the west of Tsarskoe
Selo. The country round about there is nearly level, and just
outside the town a great plain is devoted to military evolutions
and manoeuvres. A small hill has been artificially constructed
as a standpoint for observation, whence the movements of the
troops can be seen for a long distance all around.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 19
43. The Czar of Russia at Krasnoe Selo.
It is like being in a gigantic theatre just before the per-
formance begins. There are the regiments yonder, great, solid
masses of men, trained to almost mechanical accuracy of move-
ment, waiting for the word of command. This little hill at our
left is the one where the observation stand is placed. The French
President has just alighted from a carriage at the foot of this
slope and as the guest of honor escorted the Czarina up the
stairs to the pavilion from which they are to watch the manoeuvres.
(These cords, stretched down to the ground and fastened by tent-
pegs, are the guy-ropes of one of the pavilions.) Now the Czar
follows with the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, the wife of his
uncle the Grand Duke Vladimir; and the movement of the troops
will soon begin. The Czar himself is not to stay in the reviewing-
stand. He will go down to the field to lead his own regiment,
while the Czarina and President Faure and the lesser celebrities
look on.
Now let us move off hurriedly to the right, where we can
get a better view of the advancing troops.
44. Review of the Russian Troops by the French President.
That is the little hill at whose side we waited to see the
Czar pass. He and the Grand Duchess Marie went up those stairs
which we now face. You see that pavilion at the right, where two
people are standing conspicuously in front of the others? The
lady there in the light-colored gown is the Czarina and it is her
escort, President Faure, whose coat looks so black in contrast
with her airy chiffons.
The Czar has already gone galloping by at the head of his
I2O RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
regiment ; a magnificent horseman he is, too. And now regiment
after regiment is advancing from its place in that black mass
we saw a little while ago in the edge of the plain (Stereograph
43), to show off before the first lady of the land and her guest.
The Russian soldiers adore the Czar as if he were actually a god
in the flesh; and if they do not always adore their officers they
often do, and in any case they are disciplined into the most
punctilious respect of manner. One odd characteristic of Rus-
sian army service is the way in which soldiers are taught to reply
in concert, using certain prescribed, formal phrases, when com-
plimented by a superior officer. If a colonel is pleased with the
appearance of his men, and says, " Thank you, my children, you
have done well/' the proper thing, according to Russian military
etiquette, is for the privates to respond promptly, with one accord,
"We are glad to earn our colonel's approbation."
And don't they have to work to earn approbation! Cavalry
men are put through courses of evolutions equal to the most
spectacular riding in Colonel Cody's Wild West Show. Infantry
men are taught to jump into and across deep ditches, to leap
over high bars, to cross streams by walking a narrow rail, to
scale smooth walls without ladders, every sort of circus per-
formance that could possibly come into use in a military cam-
paign. And then, besides, there are corps of scouts, practised in
every sort of strategic movements, many of which are far beyond
the powers of any ordinary private soldier. In fact, here in
Russia the limitations of the private soldier are reached in direc-
tions very different from those where our own soldiers' limita-
tions are found. Here the average private is wholly uneducated,
and no work involving any reading, writing or consultation of
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 121
maps or charts can be entrusted to him. The Russian army
is a school with an elaborately varied curriculum.
The uniforms that we see resemble very closely (and one
might almost think unfortunately) the uniforms of German sol-
diers. The prevailing color is dark green, though there are
enough touches of grayish blue and dark red, gold and silver,
scattered over the field, to lighten and brighten the sombreness
of the green. The horses are fine and very well trained.
Still the regiments are advancing, advancing, with more to
follow. It is really bewildering to try to watch so many figures,
ready to shift and change at any instant. Let us rest our eyes
by taking a look at a row of spectators, representatives from vari-
ous foreign legations in St. Petersburg.
45. Foreign Representatives at the Military Review, Kras-
noe Selo.
A good-looking set of men they are, and riding some first-
rate horses. It is a curious bit of international courtesy, when
we come to think of it, to invite representatives of a dozen foreign
nations to inspect Russia's equipment for movements defensive
and offensive against other people, themselves potentially in-
cluded. But the serious side of military affairs cannot be always
present to the mind of even a Russian general. Today it Is
only a gay pageant to which the neighbors are bidden; that
is all.
And, in any case, probably there would be representatives
of other governments here to see the show, if not in one capacity,
then in another. It is an old joke that whenever German troops
are being put through their manoeuvres the crowd of on-lookers
122 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
always includes French observers in citizens' clothes. Indeed,
the tale is told that a jocose policeman, endeavoring to clear a
crowd out of the way of an advancing body of German cavalry,
once called out : " Gentlemen and Messieurs the French officers,
please move on ! "
46. The Czar, Czarina and President of France Leaving
Krasiioe Selo.
Everything comes to an end. The troops have paraded and
been put through their paces to everybody's satisfaction. It is
time to go.
We have come back, you see, to the convenient spot where
we saw the Czar and the Grand Duchess Marie ascending the
stairs (Stereograph 43). Here is the Czar once more, after tak-
ing his part in the parade, with the lovely woman who shares
his throne and their dignified guest from Paris. All three of
the great ones look more simple and unpretentious than the
officer who follows them down the stairs from the pavilion.
The men near us have the right hand lifted in salute ; only the fat
coachman seems privileged to give both hands as well as his
mind to the horses. If a coachman's girth is the measure of his
master's importance, and they told us so in St. Petersburg,
this barrel-shaped Jehu is well fitted for his position. As a
matter of fact, a broad expanse of frock like that may include
some wadding as well as good orthodox flesh and blood. An
effect o dignified coi"pulence is the elegant end desired.
Now that the troops are out of the way, we can see the im-
mense extent of the level plain used for their evolutions. See
how far it stretches away toward those distant masses of trees !
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 123
A body of soldiers, detailed for the purpose, keeps the crowd
back, so as to give the imperial carriage free room to move away
with an effective sweep. The Czar and Czarina and the President
will in a moment more be on their way to the special train which
takes them back to St. Petersburg, and after a banquet: and some
minor festivities, the friendly visit of the executive head of the
great republic will be brought to a close. Good-night, then, and
good-bye to Their Majesties and His Excellency. And may the
golden olive branch which M. Faure brought with him presage
peace for generations to come !
The significance of the French President's visit must
be especially emphasized in our minds, from the fact that our
own next movement is to be to Moscow, where so many o the
old landmarks, at every turn, are associated with the very dif-
ferent sort of visit paid to Russia by Napoleon and his army
less than one hundred years ago.
124 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
MOSCOW.
St. Petersburg and its environs are full of interest, so full
that no one wants to tear himself away but for knowing that other
Russian cities have their own charms of their own kinds. But
we can have no adequate idea of Russia until we visit the old
capital at Moscow, four hundred miles to the south-east. In St.
Petersburg everything is comparatively new, since its existence
as a city goes back but two hundred years. In Moscow what-
ever is modern is at the same time overhung by traditions of
strange, barbaric peoples who centuries ago fought over the
possession of the town, and of old-time rulers whose sway was
as relentless and bloody as that of the kings of the old Hebrew
stories.
Before the building of railroads, comparatively few foreign-
ers had travelled in Russia. European ideas of the country were
generally hazy, but the haze was a golden one. People had
heard of the splendors of court life under Anne, Elizabeth and
Catherine II, and " Muscovy," a popular name for the imperial
dominions, was vaguely regarded as a land of fabulous distances
and fabulous riches. When Napoleon in 1812 led the French
armies up toward Moscow, the soldiers in imagination saw them-
selves returning home rich with the rifled store of an Arabian
Night's treasure-house. No wonder their hearts beat high as
they drew near the city they had heard of all their lives as a
centre of semi-Oriental wealth and luxury! We are to see
Moscow also.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 125
A word first about the maps. We shall use two at Moscow,
a general map of Moscow and a map of the Kremlin or central
part of the city. A quick survey of the general map gives a
few of the main features of Moscow. The Moskwa river comes
from the west and winds in great curves toward the -east and
south. The Kremlin is situated just north of the second up-
ward bend, and from this point streets extend outward in all
directions like spokes in a wheel, while other streets circle about
the Kremlin in concentric rings. Away down in the lower left-
hand corner of the map are the Sparrow Hills. There we find
a circle in red enclosing the number 47, also in red. From a
point near this circle two red lines branch out, extending over the
city toward the north-east. We are to take our stand first at that
point and look out over that section of Moscow which lies between
the two lines.
47. From the Sparrow Hills: Napoleon's First View of
Moscow.
We can trace a part of the very route taken by the French
that disastrous autumn of 1812. It was here, on the crest of the
rolling-ground known as the Sparrow Hills, that the invaders
caught the first glimpse of the city of their dreams. Domes
and towers and spires and roofs were spread out much as we
see them now, every dome and roof gilded or silvered or painted
in brilliant .colors, red and green and blue, like some gorgeous
picture-book.
" All this is yours ! " exclaimed Napoleon. And the soldiers
took up the shout of " Moscow ! Moscow ! " Poor fellows ! Very
few of them lived to see Christmas Day.
126 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
Can you make out at the extreme right a tall building with
a lofty dome standing out against the sky? That, at least, was
not here in 1812; it is the great Temple of Our Saviour, built
afterwards to commemorate the expulsion of Napoleon's army.
We shall find its high roof, by-and-by, a good vantage-point for
our own observations. Its location on our general map is a little
south-west of the Kremlin.
But our own invasion is a peaceful one; all we want of
Moscow just at present is an opportunity to wander about the
old streets and see the people come and go about their own affairs.
We will go down to the foot of the hill, cross that river, the
Moskwa, which we see glimmering through the trees, and then
ride on along the country road among those vari-colored fields
of grass and grain. We shall pass close by that convent straight
ahead, with the tall tower and the dome-capped buildings sur-
rounded by the high, white wall; and just beyond the convent
we shall find the Moscow suburbs.
48. Novo Devitchi Convent, near Moscow.
Here we are almost i the convent gates. They told us in
St. Petersburg that Moscow is the place to see curious, bulb-
like domes, and, sure enough, here they are. Fifteen domes in
this one group of buildings, it is not a bad beginning. See how
strange their form is. The dome of St. Isaac's (Stereograph
18, St. Petersburg) was built during the present century by a
French architect, and in its proportions and contour is like
fine domes in other countries. But these odd, onion-shaped
bubbles, set on drums so tall as to amount to cylindric towers,
how strange they are! They remind us of pictures we have
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 127
seen of Chinese Tartary; and no wonder they do. We know
that a horde of Tartars possessed the land all about here for
three hundred years (from the middle of the thirteenth to the
middle of the sixteenth century), and their outlandish modes
of architecture remain to tell the tale. Not but that the Russians
hated the Tartar conquerors in vigorous mediseval fashion. But,
after all, whatever they felt toward the Tartars, the Oriental
rage for bulbous domes did please the childlike Muscovites, and
they kept up this way of building long after they were free to
build in any style they liked.
Look at that wall with the elaborate coping and at the low,
castellated towers set in at Intervals ! They lodk as If they were
intended for military defence once upon a time. What strange,
upstart, modern Interlopers they must consider this telegraph
line that extends along the road, and the street lamps too.
Moscow is a place where things ancient and modern are often
queerly jumbled together.
The Novo Devitchi (New Maiden's) Convent has stood here
ever since 1524. The Poles once burned several of the build-
ings, but these were restored by Michael, the first Czar of the
house of Romanoff. The place has often been a haven of refuge
for women during stormy times in the great world outside. Peter
the Great sent his brilliant and ambitious sister Sophia here
much against her will, near the end of the seventeenth century,
when she insisted on being too conspicuous a factor in- the
government. While he was building St. Petersburg up yonder
on the Neva, she was a nun, saying prayers in the chapel here
instead of interfering with politics. It would be interesting
to know what she really thought about the whole matter, while
128 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
she walked about the convent garden, or gave imperious orders
to the meek, little novices.
Moscow itself is calling us, and we must push on past the
convent, through the outlying streets of the rambling city. The
magnificent Temple of Our Saviour is our first objective point.
From there we can get the best general view of the Kremlin,
our second objective point.
49. Temple of Our Saviour, Moscow.
Still more domes ! This is not an old church ; it was begun
only about sixty years ago by Nicholas I, to commemorate the
deliverance of Holy Moscow from the French, but its style was
very wisely made to harmonize with the general effect of the
other Moscow churches. It is built of native stone, and is really
enormously large, though the size does not perhaps impress us
at first sight. They say seven thousand people can attend mass
here at one time. The older churches in the city (and there are
perhaps six hundred of them) almost never show any sculptured
decorations. In fact, it has been understood to be contrary to the
canons of the Russian Church to use high-relief sculpture in
connection with religious structures; but the rule must be relax-
ing, for the French architect of St. Isaac's in St. Petersburg
(Stereograph 18) used sculptures freely, wherever he wanted
them for decorative purposes, and here on this Temple we find
Russian artists doing essentially the same thing, with good
effect, too. That continuous band or frieze of sculptured figures,
extending around the building between the upper and lower
windows, certainly contributes a great deal towards the beauty
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 129
of the whole. The construction of this church out of stone is an
exceptional thing for Moscow. This region has little building-
stone of its own, and brick and wood are much more commonly
used, often overlaid with stucco. These curved gables, pinched
in sharply at the line of the ridge-pole, are constructive forms
that Russia delights to use; and the long, plain, easily traceable
vertical lines of the principal wall supports are characteristically
Russian, too.
The domes of this church are literally covered with gold;
sheets of actual gold-leaf were applied to their entire surface,
and the gilding alone cost three-quarters of a million dol-
lars. When they set out to do a thing in Russia, they do it.
The scenes from the Bible and the New Testament, which cover
the walls of the temple, were painted by the celebrated Russian
painters Makovsky, Serniravsky, Prianishnikoff, Repin and
others. The window frames are made of bronze, each frame
weighing two-and-a-half tons. The image of the God of Sabaoth
on the inside of the dome is probably the largest figure ever
painted the stretch of arms, from point to point, is forty-nine
feet. The figure of Jesus is seven feet in height.
That must be a girls' boarding-school out for a walk. Perhaps
the vigilant chap er one is taking her flock home from some service
in the church. Young girls are always attractive, and it would
be interesting to see these more closely if we could. All the
world was reading a few years ago the school-girl diary of Marie
Bashkirtseff, the beautiful and gifted Russian artist who did such
good work in Paris and died so young. Is there another Marie
here, maybe, dreaming ambitious dreams of art and fame, falling
130 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
in love and falling out again, speculating about life and death
and immortality, and frankly admiring her own image in the
bed-room mirror?
The best place from which to get general views of the city,
including our view of the Kremlin as a whole, is that railed-in
space on the top of the main building, around the base of the
dome. We will go up there for our outlook after we have visited
the inside of the church.
50. The Altar, Temple of Our Saviour, Moscow.
Here again, as in the Peter and Paul Cathedral at St
Petersburg (Stereograph 27), we see no statues of sacred per
sonages, but always pictures instead. Their subjects are much
like those in the Latin (Roman Catholic) churches with which
we are familiar; saints, martyrs, patriarchs and prophets. Some
of these paintings about the high altar are by Verestschagin,
the famous Russian, several of whose works were exhibited in
America a few years ago and made a great impression on the
public.
This structure here before us, a bewildering fagade of marble,
colors, gold and silver, is the ikonostasis, or sacred screen, which
stands in front of the actual altar, shielding that from the gaze
of the people. During service the officiating priests come and
go through those beautifully carved doors in the centre of the
screen, doors costing thousands of dollars, a mass of precious
metals wrought by the most skillful workmen. Candles and lamps
of holy oil are both devoted here to the honor of God and the
saints; see, some candles stand on tall candlesticks, some at the
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 13!
right, before the picture of the Virgin and Child, fill a hanging
chandelier. At each side wing of the ikcnostasis a lamp swings
by long chains.
Close by us at the right, just outside the chancel rail, near
the large picture of the Virgin and Child, we can see an ikon
that is a special favorite. Five tall candles stand before it, and
many are the hearty prayers offered up by devout worshippers
who come here with their confessions and petitions,
We see here, even more conspicuously than when we were
looking at the street signs, how beautifully decorative Russian
letters are.
The inscription above this huge, painted figure of the
prophet, on the wall at the right, is as beautiful as any arabesque
pattern; and the vertical band of lettering at the left of the
prophet repeats the same ornamental effect. Truly, Russian
designers hav admirable material at iiand in the very alphabet
itself.
Now for the place on the roof we saw surrounded by the
gilded railing when we were out in the street (Stereograph 49).
There we will take time to look about us at our leisure.
51. "Holy Moscow," Looking North from the Temple of
Our Saviour.
This is the newer, modern part of the city. See ! It stretches
away as far as the eye can reach, buildings and trees, gay-colored
roofs, with gilded domes blossoming here and there all over the
scene like tall-stemmed flowers. The population of this place
is over 900,000, so the books say, and it is a prosperous manu-
132 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
facturing city. All. the principal railroads in the empire centre
here. St. Petersburg may continue to be the political centre of
Russia, but Moscow is steadily increasing in industrial and com-
mercial importance. Though she possesses some of the most
curious antiquities in the empire, she herself is far from falling
asleep. On the contrary, she is very much awake and at work,
and means to have all the modern improvements worth having.
See the telegraph wires and the electric-light poles down there
in the street! And public libraries are another sign of modern
ideals in living; Moscow has her public library too. Look at
this low, corner building at our feet, with the gable roof and the
curving front! Just beyond it we see a square, two-storied
building with a balustrade around the roof. Beyond that, on the
corner of a cross street, is another two-storied building with an
entrance door in the middle. Now look almost straight beyond
that, just a bit to the left, and you see a tall building with a
heavy cornice crowning its light-colored walls, and a cupola
above, surrounded by columns arranged in pairs. That is the
public library and museum, once the palace of a noble Russian
family. We shall see it nearer by-and-by.
Let us turn to our map for a minute now. Finding the
Temple of Our Saviour again, south-west of the Kremlin, we see
two red lines branching out from it toward the north, each hav-
ing the number 51 at its extremity on the map margin. We have
been looking just now over that part of the city which these lines
include.
From the opposite side of the Temple of Our Saviour two
other red lines branch out, one toward the east, the other toward
the south-east. Each line has the number 52 at its extremity
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 133
on the map margin. We are to look now over the part o
Moscow between these lines.
52. Moscow, "The Pride of the Czars," Looking South
east from the Temple of Our Saviour.
Did you think Moscow seemed a large city, looking over it
towards the north? But it extends quite as far, you see, in
other directions. There are nearly a thousand streets in
Moscow; and as for the churches, some say there are over four
hundred, some say six hundred. We are ready to believe any
figures offered to us, in the face of this forest of towers and
domes. If we try to count those in plain sight, we shall probably
get lost in a very few minutes.
What a beautiful river the Moskwa is, with those clear reflec-
tions of the buildings opposite. It is about as large and as
crooked as the Seine at Paris. And does it not give one a be-
wildering sense of the remoteness of people from each other,
to think that in these streets and shops and houses, as far as
the eye can reach, there are thousands on thousands of people
busy about their own affairs, to whom our whole western world
is only a vague name. " In what district of Russia is America? "
asks an old soldier. "Is America near Berlin? " politely inquires
our droschky driver. It is good for our personal and national
vanity to learn once in a while how contentedly people can live
without knowing the things we know, or caring for the things we
care for. At the same time we must probably admit that to the
average American or Englishman Russia is only a vague name.
In the distance we are looking towards the vast, open country
comprising southern eastern Russia; towards Central Asia;
towards China.
134 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
On the map two red lines are found extending from the
Temple of Our Saviour towards the north-east. The lower line
extends to the margin, and has the number 53 at the end; the
upper line extends only as far as the Kremlin, showing that the
sweep of vision is obstructed in that direction by the Kremlin.
We can now see with our own eyes whether that is so.
53. The Moskwa River and the Shimmering Spires of
Holy Moscow.
Ah, there it is, the Kremlin, the storied centre of the city,
the heart of it, that Napoleon meant to make his own! It is a
triangular-shaped enclosure, within a high, rosy-white wall.
There is a bit of the wall straight ahead, at our left, coming
towards the river as far as that stone tower with the conical
*-oof ; then turning and running down beside the river to another
tower at the bend in the river. There the wall makes another
corner, and runs off once more to the left (north-west) out of
sight. It is no kind of fortress now; that wall would amount
to nothing in modern warfare, though it did withstand some
fierce attacks by the Poles and Lithuanians in the middle ages.
But Moscow is wise to retain the old wall and keep the ancient
citadel looking as nearly as possible like its old self in the days
before electricity and railroads.
The most picturesque and fascinating spots in all Moscow
are within or near those Kremlin walls. We can see several
of the most famous landmarks from here. It will help us to get
a better idea of the location of these landmarks if we study
the special map of the Kremlin also. The tallest of the
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 135
towers is the bell-tower of Ivan (Ivan Veliky),* and the dome-
crowned building at this side of the Tower is the Cathedral of
the Archangel Michael (Cath. Arkh.). We shall go nearer and
get closer views of both by-and-by. The great, three-storied
building next to the Archangel Cathedral is the Imperial Palace
(Gr. Palais), a fine building in its way, but not old enough to
accumulate much history, for it was built only about 1850. The
former palace, full to the roof of reminiscences, was burned
during the occupation of the city by the French troops in 1812.
Turning to our general map of Moscow again, we find two
more red lines branching out from the Temple towards the
north-east. Both of these lines extend to the margin and have
the number 54 at their extremities. In looking out between
these two lines we shall be able to look over the heart o the
Kremlin,
54. " *Tis the Kremlin Wall; 'tis Moscow, the Jewel of
the Czars."
Here we get an admirable view of the main part of the
Kremlin, all that we were unable to see in our former position.
Let us see how many points we can identify, aided again by
the Kremlin map.
The shadows, stretching away from under us, as we stand
on the Temple roof. They are, of course, those of the Temple
itself. We recognize the shadow of the bulb-shaped dome of
one of its four smaller towefs (see Stereograph 49). The busy
street that leads away in a graceful curve just in front of us
* There are so many variations in the spelling of Russian names that we shall
use English equivalents in the text and add the names given on our maps in
parentheses.
136 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
is the one bordering the beautiful Moskwa and following its
winding course. Some of the wagons are making a sharp turn
off the street toward the right. They are about crossing the
bridge we just admired (Stereograph 53). Following the main
street around its course past that park, full of green trees, we
come to the corner of the Kremlin wall, marked by its round
tower with a conical top, the same tower which we have already
seen.
Now let your eye run along to the left (north-west) from
this tower, and trace the battlemented line of the wall rising
between two masses of trees till you come to another tower,
a darker, square tower, with small, fortress-like windows and a
steeple-shaped roof. This marks an opening in the wall known
as the Borovitski Gate (Porte Borovitkiia). Still - farther to the
left (north-east), beyond that fine park, is yet another of the
old gates, the Troitsky, or Trinity Gate (Porte Troitskiia). It
was here that the greater part of the French army entered the
city in 1812. Napoleon, after viewing the city, as we did, from
the Sparrow Hills (Stereograph 47), advanced and halted just
outside the town, expecting the keys of the city to be submissively
brought out to him. But no one appeared. Then the army came
on and, pouring through the Trinity and Borovitsky Gates there
before us, found, to their amazement, that the Russians had not
stayed to surrender, but had simply abandoned the great city, leav-
ing the gates open, as who should say: Enter if you think it best!
It was an ominous reception, but the French soldiery still had
their minds full of visions of plunder, and thought not very
far ahead.
Beyond the Troitsky Gate the Kremlin Wall extends still
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 137
farther north-east, enclosing the Arsenal (that long pile of light-
colored buildings is the Arsenal), and then running into another
round tower with a conical roof, very like this first one on the
corner near us. At the farther round tower, the wall makes a
sharp angle and runs south-east, but that, of course, we cannot
see from here. We shall go around later to that farther side of
the wall, for there are some particularly interesting things to see
over there.
But now what can we make out within the walled enclosure?
Coming back to the nearest round tower at the curve of this
street and looking just beyond it, we see again the Cathedral
of the Archangel Michael, and the tall tower of Ivan beyond it
to the left. That is, of course, the Palace, just this side of the
Ivan Tower. -The building to the left of the Palace is the Royal
Treasury (Orotjeinaio Palata).
When the French made their entry, Napoleon took up his
residence, conqueror-fashion, in the great Palace. But no sooner
were the troops fairly inside the city than fires, which the Rus-
sians had intentionally kindled, burst out in a dozen different
places, and the invaders were forced to move from one part of
the city to another, fighting these fires. (It is almost a miracle
that the Archangel Cathedral and the Ivan Tower were spared
by the flames. The Palace and the Treasury adjoining it were
destroyed and afterwards rebuilt as we see them now.) It was
after four days of this wretched attempt at occupying the city
that Napoleon proposed to Field-Marshal Kutuzoff the making
of a treaty of peace. Kutuzoff refused, saying that the Czar
Alexander was but just getting ready to begin operations. No
treaty would be signed as long as a Frenchman remained in the
I3& RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
land ! The French lingered and delayed four weeks longer, and
then began that frightfully disastrous retreat, one of the greatest
military tragedies in modern history.
We remember seeing in St. Petersburg the Alexander
Column, raised to commemorate the defeat of the invasion
(Stereograph 12). And this is the very spot where Napoleon
had believed he was going to seize Russia by the throat ! Doesn't
it make the historic story a thousand times more real, now that
we see the very gates and buildings around which the tragedy
centred ?
Now let us go down from our lofty station on the church
roof and cross the bridge which we saw a few minutes ago
(Stereograph 53), to the south of the Moskwa, to get still an-
other view of the little, walled heart of the old town. We will
pass along the river towards the east until we come to a point
just beyond the cathedrals and the tall bell-tower. The map
of the Kremlin must be used now; that gives our position and
shows we are to look somewhat north of west.
55. The Kremlin, Moscow. " There lie our ancient Czars,
asleep."
This is good! Now we can see the wall much nearer and
get a better idea of its impressive height, by comparing it with
the men and hors-es in the street below. This is the southern
side of the Kremlin. One, two, three towers are set in the wall
just opposite where we stand, but only the left-hand one of
the three seems to afford entrance. That is the Tainitski Gate
(Porte Tainitskiia). The tall bell-tower (Ivan Veliky) looks
taller than ever as we approach it closer. It is really three
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 139
hundred and twenty-five feet to the summit of that gilt' cross
above its dome. And have we three of those dome-capped cath-
edrals between the bell-tower and the palace? Even so. The
churches in Moscow are as thick as buttercups in a field. From
our station on the top of the Church of Our Saviour we could
see clearly only the central one of these three churches, that of
the Archangel Michael (Cath. Arkh.).
At St, Petersburg (Stereograph 27) we saw the tombs of
the emperors since Peter the Great. Here in the Cathedral of
Michael are buried the older Czars, before Peter's day, forty-
seven of them. Twice a year a religious service is held there,
and prayers are made for the forgiveness of "that burden of
sins voluntary or involuntary, known to themselves or unknown,"
which the dead princes committed while they were on earth.
But how magnificent they were while they walked the earth !
Each heir-apparent when he in turn became Czar has held prac-
tically absolute sway over millions of subjects, the autocrat of
their secular destiny and the visible Head of their Church. And
you know it is in that Cathedral of the Assumption (Cath.
Ousp.), standing between the Cathedral of Michael and the tall
bell-tower, that each new Czar, since Ivan the Terrible in the
sixteenth century, has been crowned and invested with his
enormous . authority. It was in that very cathedral that the
Grand Duke Nicholas in 1894 became Czar Nicholas II, the
arbiter of the fate of one hundred and thirty million people,
and the master of one-seventh of all the land upon this globe.
Such a coronation service is splendid and solemn at the same
time. It is preceded, on the Emperor's part, by fasting and re-
ligious meditation. He publicly recites the creed of the Russian
140 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
Church, prays for the Empire, and then himself places the crown
upon his own head to signify his taking on the vast responsibili-
ties of imperial rule.
You notice that third church standing between the Cath-
edral of the Archangel Michael and the Palace? That is the
Cathedral of the Annunciation (Cath. Blagor.)- It is there that
most of the Czars have been baptized and married. When the
French occupied the Kremlin in 1812, they stabled some of their
horses in this church to show their contempt for all things Rus-
sian. But, alas, for their short-lived pride! Many of those
same elegant French officers were glad to eat horse-flesh to stay
the pangs of deadly hunger, during their fearful march homeward
through cold and carnage.
The most characteristically Russian of all buildings in the
country are probably this group before which we are standing.
From an architectural standpoint, they undoubtedly have a great
many faults; they seem to own a sort of cousinship to the work
of Byzantine builders, and yet they lack the dignified simplicity
and well-harmonized proportions of the Byzantine work. They
have a strong flavor of the Orient, we can feel an Eastern
influence in those many hued, gilded and silvered domes; and
yet these buildings are not full-blooded offspring of Tartar
taste, for every dome bears its cross, in token of the faith of
the Nazarene. Every interior is planned for the worship of the
Trinity. Greece and Tartary have evidently both contributed to
the shaping of these strange architectural fantasies, but the result
cannot be called anything but Russian. It would be interesting
to see whether a good architect today could produce anything
really sensible, strong and beautiful, using these puzzling bits of
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 141
native building for a text, and trying to solve his practical prob-
lems of modern need in terms of ancient form and color.
But the newer Russian architecture is, as a matter of fact,
almost entirely abandoning the childlike tastes of earlier genera-
tions and adopting more or less commonplace European ideals
instead. We saw that in St. Petersburg. It is as if the people
of a certain district were to give up all at once the possibly un-
couth but certainly striking costumes of their ancestors, and
henceforward wear only ready-made clothing of the current
year's cut. The Palace, that large building next west (to the
left) from the Cathedral of the Annunciation, is an instance in
point. Nicholas I built it in its present form, after the old palace
had been burned during the French occupancy. It is an enor-
mous rambling structure (we see from here only a part of one
end), containing some 700 rooms; but the exterior is not at all
impressive or beautiful. New Russia, modern Russia, has not
yet waked up to a realizing sense of what she might do with her
national architecture.
Meanwhile, we are at liberty to enjoy these extraordinary
creations of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, more like
clumps of outlandish flowers in bloom than like Christian
churches, according to" our own Western notions. We are to
enter the Kremlin enclosure and study some of those buildings
near at hand.
There are, as we have seen, various gates by which we might
enter the Kremlin; but one of these has special significance and
interest even more than the others. We will choose that for our
place of entry.
This gate, the Spaski Gate (Porte Spasskiia), is in the east-
142 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
ern wall of the Kremlin, farther to our right than we can here
see. Our Kremlin map shows that the south-east corner of the
wall is not far beyond the limit of vision on our right. We
will move on along the street in which we have been, on the
right bank of the river, and cross a bridge, the Pont Moskvo-
restsky, to the east, bringing us out just east of the Kremlin.
At this corner the wall turns at almost a right angle, as we see
on the map again, and runs nearly straight north to the Spaski
Gate. We will pause near the wall, about one-eighth of a mile
from the gate, and look north towards it.
56. The Kremlin Wall and Tower of the Sacred Gate, Mos-
cow.
Here we are right under the Kremlin Wall, as we pass tip
the street towards the gate with its tall clock-tower.
Moscow is a city of bewildering extremes. Just as the con-
vent prison of Czar Peter's sister (Stereograph 48) was flanked
by telegraph lines and street lamps, so extremes of wealth and
poverty meet too. Immense fortunes are accumulated and spent
here in Moscow, and yet there are vast numbers of the people who
live in the most abject poverty. The same facts exist in our
own American cities too, but here the picturesque setting of the
facts emphasizes them in a stranger's eyes.
That building we see in the distance, at the extreme right,
is a part of the Great Bazaar where people with plenty of money
to spend go shopping. Here on the bank beside the Kremlin
Wall is quite another sort of institution, a market for second-
hand clothes and other cheap household stuffs. Probably you
do not care to make any purchases here just at present, so we
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE, 143
will go on up the hill to where the gate leads from the Red
Square, by the Bazaar, into the enclosure of the Kremlin.
57- Spaski Vorota, Sacred Gate of the Kremlin.
Now that we have reached this point opposite the gate, we
find it looks like a large and gloomy church, its high square
walls decorated in semi-Gothic fashion. People come and go
through that cavernous passageway that opens just before us.
In a few minutes we will go through ourselves; but they and
we, and everyone that passes through, even the Czar himself,
must go with uncovered head the length of the passageway until
the open is reached on the farther side. They say that Napoleon,
when he was here, scornfully declined to follow the old custom,
but Heaven would not suffer his intended disrespect. A sudden
gust of September wind took that famous cocked hat and sent it
whirling down the street. He did pass through uncovered
after all!
The reason for this religiously kept observance is the pres-
ence of the ikon or holy picture of the Redeemer hung there
over the doorway. It is an old ikon which has for centuries been
credited with specially conspicuous powers of miracle-working.
As the story goes, some impious Tartars away back in the old
times when Russia was harassed by their invasions tried to
tear it down, but every ladder they used broke in the using, and
they gave up the attempt. The Russian army carried it with
them as a supernatural aid when they were at war with Poland
in the early part of the seventeenth century, and with its help
they succeeded in capturing Smolensk. When Napoleon was here
the French soldiers tried to demolish it with cannon shot, but
144 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
at first their powder proved to be not In working condition,
and then when they did touch off their gun with some effect,
the effect was not what they intended; for the charge exploded
their gun and left the ikon unharmed.
The death penalty is now all but abolished in Russia; but
two and three hundred years ago, when indeed all Europe re-
garded public executions as salutary object-lessons, Russian
monarchs were relentless in the severity of the punishments
meted out to offenders. Many have been the ghastly scenes that
took place in the Red Square (Place Krasna'ia), extending off
to the right from where we stand. Ivan the Terrible, in the
sixteenth century, had hundreds of rebellious subjects put to
death here in the enforced presence of crowds of terrified spec-
tators. Even so late as the time of Peter the Great, horrible
spectacles took place here. Insurrections had broken out in cer-
tain divisions of the army, and Peter believed these were en-
couraged by his sister Sophia. The princess he promptly shut
up in the Novo Devitchi convent (Stereograph 48), but the
rebels themselves were beheaded without mercy near this gate,
their heads being fastened along the top of the Kremlin wall
as a warning to soldiers and citizens. Very likely, many of the
condemned said their last prayers here before the picture at
this gate.
Historical reminiscences make this really not a cheerful
place in which to linger, even though the bright mid-day sunshine
does flood the square, and the shifting throng of teamsters,
droschky drivers, errand boys and all sorts of peaceful citizens
seems to Indicate that life goes on cheerfully enough just now.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 145
Let us go in through the gate to see the sights of the Kremlin
itself, not forgetting the rule about bared heads. If we should
forget, any one of these Russians will hasten to admonish us.
The rule simply must be obeyed, or the heavens may fall. Very
well. If that bit of ceremony is the fee required for entrance
into the charmed precinct we will pay it readily, for there is
nothing which so makes us want to enter any given place as the
putting of a high wall around it. The only hint we get here of
what there is on the other side is the gleaming dome of one of
the Kremlin buildings surmounted by its glittering cross. The
map shows that we shall stand next inside the Kremlin Wall
and look back (north) to this gate and the church beyond it.
58. Vozneseiiski Devltchi (Ascension Convent i, Ancient
Burial-PIace of Czarinas and Princesses.
Now we have passed through the gate (that is the door
yonder, through which we came) and are in the Czar's Square,
within the enclosure of the Kremlin. It was the dome of this
old convent (Convent Vozness.) that we saw from the Red
Square outside the Sacred Gate (Stereograph 57).
From this nearer point we can see more plainly the details
of the dome, and notice the gilded chains that extend from the
trefoil-shaped ends of the arms of the cross down to the top of
the dome. That decorative use of chains is characteristically
Russian. We shall see it again on other ecclesiastical buildings.
Do you notice that oddly elaborated cross on the dome over
behind (and away to the left of) this entrance portion of the
convent? See, it has three cross-pieces, growing gradually nar-
rower toward the top, and it is fixed in the concave side of a
146 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
gilded crescent. This sort of combination of cross and crescent
is characteristically Russian too. It has often been explained
as a reminiscence of the old occupancy of Russia by the Tartars ;
the crescent was a favorite emblem of that Asiatic people, and
travellers in Russia are often given to understand that the
planting of a cross on a crescent is a Russian symbol of the
victory of their own Christian religion over the Mohammedan
faith of their eastern invaders ; but, more likely, the crescent was
originally used here as a symbol of the Virgin, and the planting
of the cross on the crescent was meant as a reminder of the
miracle of the Nativity.
When they tell us that this Ascension Convent was founded
by a pious Czarina in the fourteenth century, we guess at once
that this elegantly elaborate building fronting on the square
must be a rebuilt structure. The original buildings were partly
burned in one of the dreadful fires that have swept over the
Kremlin, and this portion, among others, was put up less than
a hundred years ago. That accounts for its queerly mixed style,
a compound of Byzantine and perpendicular Gothic. The con-
vent is really a very large establishment, including two churches
and large court-yards, besides the buildings where the nuns
live. That gate- way next the end of this white- walled building
the one with the beautiful, lace-like grille over the door
leads into the convent court-yard. There are nuns in this con-
vent today keeping up practically the same life of religious de-
votion which the Princess Eudoxia led five hundred years ago,
when she retired from the cares and complications of a royal
career to say her prayers and take care of the sick poor. Ever
since Eudoxia's day the convent has been to Russian women a
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 147
haven of refuge from the turbulent outside world, and many
princesses who never resorted to it during their lives were given
the hospitality of tombs after their death. It was not until after
Peter the Great had" transferred his own affections to St. Peters-
burg and established the precedent of using the fortress cathedral
there as a place of burial (Stereograph 27) that the use of this
convent chapel for the resting-place of the Czarinas came to
an end.
All this time we have been standing with our backs toward
some of the most interesting features of the Kremlin. Let us
turn directly about The map of the Kremlin shows what our
position will then be.
59. Tower of Ivan the Great and Cathedral of the Arch-
angel Michael.
Here we are in the midst of that wonderful group of build-
ings that we were studying a little while ago from a point over
on the right bank of the Moskwa River (Stereograph 55). The
wall and the river below it are now away at our left. This is
the same bell-tower (Ivan Veliky) which we saw from the roof
of the Temple of Our Saviour (Stereographs 53-54), but now we
are near enough to see the bells in several of the successive
stories. Bells? This end of the Czar's Square is full of them.
The tower and the tall building adjoining it make a nest of
bells, thirty-four in all; and there, straight ahead of us, on the
ground at the foot of the tower is the bell of all, the one that
used to be pictured in our school-books, the Great Bell of
Moscow !
148 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
The tower is one of the most beautiful buildings we have yet
seen in Russia, dignified and simple, beautifully proportioned.
How much more pleasant it is to the eye on account of the
differences between the different stories, though they harmonize
well and make one strong, consistent whole! The lower story
is the most solid, with those narrow loop-holes of windows
that help give it its serious, substantial look, as if it might last
forever. Then the arcaded portion above gives airiness, and
makes beautiful contrasts of light and shade where the windows
alternate with solid wall space. And just see how each successive
story, marked off by horizontal bands of sculptured moulding,
leads our eye gradually higher and higher and higher, making us
feel the whole height more than we should if the upward trend
were all in a few unbroken vertical lines. Besides, the horizontal
mouldings make something more for the sunlight to play with,
laying soft bands of shadow around the eight-sided shaft and
making lovely varieties of light and dark to please our eye. It
is not often we have a chance to actually admire the form of
the older Russian buildings. Generally we enjoy their queer-
ness and quaintness and story-book suggestiveness, but cannot
honestly regard them as things of beauty. All the more we are
grateful for the Ivan Tower. Somebody had a fine eye for
beauty in construction. The names of the Czar Boris and the
Czarevitch (crown prince) Theodore are inscribed as the builders
on one of those encircling bands away up at the top of the tower
just under the dome; but it is the name of the fifteenth-century
architect, Ivan (John), that has clung to it.
Here is a bit of variety in Moscow domes. The four smaller
domes on the roof of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 149
(Cath. Arkfa.) are not bulb-shaped at all, but hemispherical, as
they might be anywhere else outside Russia. Their gilded sur-
faces make a dazzling contrast with the white-washed walls of
the church. Curiously enough, the oldest buildings in Moscow
do not show the signs of age that we are accustomed to see in
other parts of Europe. There are no " ivy-mantled towers " here,
and as soon as a wall or a dome changes color from time and
weather, the Russians, who love bright, new, gay things, hasten
to re-paint, re-whiten, re-silver and re-gild. Though Holy
Moscow has been the scene of battles and sieges innumerable,
every time the ravages have been repaired and the old structures
made as fine as ever in all their bravery of gilding and color.
It would be interesting to go inside the Cathedral of the
Archangel, and see the tombs of the old Czars. Each one was
Lord of the Earth while he lived. Ivan the Terrible, the monarch
who ordered many of the dreadful executions outside the Sacred
Gate (Stereograph 57), was, if traditions are true, a prince as
ferocious as the giants in fairy stories. A man one day brought
him a letter from a Russian prince who had deserted to the
Poles. Ivan thrust a sharp-pointed staff through the wretched
messenger's foot, pinning him to the ground, and held him there
while he read the letter of his absconding vassal. Dreadful tales
of all sorts are told of Czar Ivan IV, and yet the very fact that
he was their Czar and that he drove out the hated Tartars from
the land, makes the Russian people forgive his ferocity. There
is an old song about his funeral :
" All the warrior people assembled to pray to God in the Cathedral ;
there was a new coffin made of cypress-wood ; in the coffin lies the
orthodox Czar, the orthodox Czar Ivan Vasilievitch the Terrible,
At his head lies the life-giving cross ; by the cross lies the imperial
150 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
crown ; at his feet lies the terrible sword ; around the coffin bum the
holy lights ; in front of the coffin stand all the 1 priests and patriarchs
they read, they pray, they repeat the valediction to the dead, to our
orthodox Czar, our Czar Ivan Yasilievitch the Terrible."
It would be Interesting to visit the Chudof (miracle) Monas-
tery (Conv. Tchotidov), whose columned fagade is here at our
right. When the French occupied the city, Marshal Davoust,
it is said, used the High Altar of this Monastery Church for
his bed-room. It was a brief season that Napoleon's men had
here, but they held all sorts of unholy revelry while it lasted.
Since we have come so near to that old friend of our child-
hood, the Great Bell, suppose we cross the Square and go quite
close to it. A good place to examine it will be at the farther
side of the bell at the left of the tower, for on that side are the
broken place and the fragment that dropped out long, long ago.
We are now looking south ; we shall then be looking north.
60. The King of Bells, Weighing 200 Tons, the Great Beit
of Moscow.
And this is the Great Bell of which we have so often heard.
We know all about it as it stands here now on its pedestal in
the square. It is 26 feet in height, almost 68 in circumference,
and it weighs 200 tons. It is the largest bell in all the world, and
it bears portrait representations of the Czar Alexis and the
Empress Anne. The intention was, it is said, to hang it in the
Great Cathedral, but it fell while being hoisted, and the
piece we see here was broken out. Tradition says it was cast
early in the seventeenth century, in the reign of the Czar Boris,
who built the beautiful tower (the same Boris who established
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 151
serfdom), and afterwards successively recast by Alexis and
Anne; but nobody seems to be quite sure where or how. For
at least a hundred years it had lain here broken and half buried
in the earth, until Nicholas I in 1836 had it dug up and placed
on the pedestal where it is now. It is a monument to Sv/me-
body's ambition; the greatest bell on earth; we can only guess
at the enormous volume of its sound when it was rung. If only
it could tell its own story ! But it rests here, a pathetically dumb
and disabled giant, nonchalantly climbed upon through the day
by these street boys and impertinently eyed at night by these
upstart modern gas lamps that stand staring about the Square.
How are the mighty fallen!
Just a moment before we turn to the tower at our left. See
those further variations of the cross that are displayed on the
domes of the Chudof Monastery on the farther side of the
Square at the left. The simple Greek cross (with four equal
arms) is a favorite form in Russia, but ecclesiastical decora-
tions include a great number of variations of both the Greek
and the familiar Latin form. Here is another instance close at
hand in the top of the Great Bell, a Greek cross with rays par-
tially filling in the space between the arms.
Now that we are at the very foot of the tower, wouldn't it
be interesting to climb to the top as Napoleon did, and look
out over Holy Moscow? It will be worth our while. Let us
make our way, then, up three hundred and forty-two steps
among the bells, and look toward the north-east Only the
general map of Moscow locates our new field of view. Two red
lines will be found branching out from the Kremlin with the
number 61 at the end of each on the map margin.
152 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
61. Holy Moscow, from the Tower of Ivan the Great.
How tiny the people look, down in the Square where we
were only a few minutes ago ! The droschky horses look like the
rats and mice that drew Cinderella's pumpkin-shell coach. Yes,
we recognize the nearest landmarks off at the east. The build-
ing just at our feet, with the columns guarding jts curved front,
is the Chudof Monastery, the columned fagade of which we
caught a glimpse away to our right (Stereograph 59), and again
we saw this face of the Monastery to our right when looking at
the Great Bell (Stereograph 60). We remember well that white
building next beyond the Monastery, with the great dome and
the curious, steeple-shaped ornaments on the roof, like stacks
of corn in a field; that is the Ascension Convent, the first build-
ing we studied after we came inside the Kremlin (Stereograph
58) ; in fact, the one whose dome peeped over the wall at us
while we were standing outside the Sacred Gate (Stereo-
graph 57).
There is the Sacred Gate itself, or at least its tower-shaped
top with the clock-face. And there is the Kremlin Wall run-
ning off to the right from the Sacred Gate. It was over at the
other side of that wall that we lingered by the market booths
(Stereograph 56). And what of that fantastic building just op-
posite at the right (south) of the Sacred Gate and beyond the
wall? That is St. Basil's Church (EgL Vas. Blaj. on the map).
They told us that Moscow is continually re-painting her gay and
gilded roofs, and here we find her in the process. St. Basil's
Church is almost covered just now with scaffolding, for the
freshening of all those queer onion and pineapple-shaped domes
with which it blossoms. It is the strangest conglomeration of
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 153
shapes that ever an architect conceived, with its eleven domes,
each one seemingly more fanciful in shape than all the rest, and
all painted in gay colors, gilded and silvered or sprinkled with
glittering stars.
When Napoleon looked down at it, as we are looking now,
he took it for some old Tartar structure and issued orders for
" that mosque " to be destroyed ; but in some way or other the
instructions were neglected, so St. Basil's shrine is standing to
this day; indeed, it is being mended and furbished up, as we
see, in readiness for still longer life. The St. Basil whom it
commemorates is not the famous old church father, but a local
saint of Ivan's day.
We get a good idea here of the eastern extent of the whole
city as it stretches off beyond the Kremlin. We have already
looked north over the city from the Temple of Our Saviour
(Stereograph 51), south from the same point (Stereograph 52),
and last over a part of the same district which we see now
(Stereograph 53). These outlooks, put together, give us a pretty
good idea of the size of the city. The distance across the whole
city is from six to nine miles, according to the direction taken,
and it includes about a thousand streets, housing a population
equal to that of Brooklyn.
We ought to get one closer view of the Cathedral of the
Assumption, and to do this we must go down once more the
stairs of the Ivan Tower, and pass around to the other (west)
side. You remember how, when we looked at these buildings
from over across the river (Stereograph 55), the Assumption
Cathedral seemed to stand- in behind and between the Tower
and the Cathedral of Michael. The Kremlin map shows that we
are to look at it from the south.
154 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
62* Cathedra! of the Assumption.
It is a wonderful object-lesson in tolerance to visit these
old churches and try to realize their point of view. To the
orthodox Russian, his church is the one true descendant from
the little Galilean band who learned their lore of Christ; all the
rest of the world are wanderers and wayfarers, strayed far from
the true fold.
How different this Russian fagade is from the sculptured cath-
edrals of Western Europe ! Everything o a decorative sort is flat,
or nearly flat, the holy figures of saints and martyrs, patriarchs
and prophets being partly painted and partly represented in
metal. The colored figures of the saints around and above the
doorway shine out with double conspicuousness in contrast with
the severely plain, whitewashed walls in which they are set.
These pictures and the beautifully gilded domes together cer-
tainly make this church singularly impressive, in spite of the
expanses of commonplace whitewash.
We can see plainly here another instance of the use of gilded
chains hanging from the arms of the crosses high in air and
coming down to the domes below. And do not those .narrow
loop-holes of windows suggest that there must be inside a par-
ticularly dim religious light?
The building beyond the high fence on our extreme right
is the Chudof Monastery of which we have caught glimpses sev-
eral times already.
Between the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael and the
Great Palace, we saw, when we were over at the other side of
the river (Stereograph 55), the Cathedral of the Annunciation
with a staircase in front (Cath. Blagov. on the map).
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 155
63. Cathedral of the Annunciation*
We find ourselves now at the foot of the staircase where
we can look up at the fanciful little church with Its nine domes
symbolic of the nine celestial hierarchies, and its towers and
scalloped gables. This is the church where almost all the Czars
have been married with great state and ceremony. There was
an old church here as far back as the thirteenth century, but
this particular building is largely the work of Ivan the Terrible.
It does not look as if it were even so old as Ivan's day, but that
is because of the Russian fondness for renovating old buildings,
painting and gilding their age out of sight.
One of the famous ikons belonging to this church is a picture
of the Virgin which has worked miracles similar to those of the
ikon of the Sacred Gate (Stereograph 57). Czar Dimitri carried
it with him in 1380 when he went to fight the Tartars "on the
banks of the Don, and its presence helped him gain a famous
victory at the battle of Kulikovo. The wife of Dimitri was the
Princess Eudoxia, she who founded the Voznesenski Convent
(Stereograph 58) over beside the Sacred Gate. There is an old
Russian song which tells of a prophetic vision appearing to
Dimitri while he was attending service here:
" In the holy Cathedral of the Annunciation S, Cyprian the metro-
politan was singing the mass, and Prince Dimitri was assisting with
his princess, Eudoxia, with his princes and boyars, with his famous
captains.
"Suddenly Prince Dimitri ceased to pray; he leaned against a
pillar ; he was suddenly rapt in spirit ; his spiritual eyes were opened ;
he had a strange vision.
" He no longer saw the candles burning before the ikons; he no
longer heard the music of the sacred choirs'; it was the wild country,
the battlefield of Kulikovo which he saw. It was sown with the corpses
of Christians and Tartars the bodies of the Christians like melting
wax, the bodies of the Tartars like black pitch.
156 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
" On this field of Kulikovo the holy Mother of God was walking.
Behind her were the angels of the Saviour, the angels and the holy
archangels with burning tapers ; they sang holy songs over the relics
of the orthodox warriors. . . .
"And the Mother of God asked : ' Where is the Prince Dimitri ? '
And the Apostle Peter answered her: 'The Prince Dimitri is in the
town of Moscow. . . . He is hearing the liturgy with his Princess
Eudoxia, with his princes and boyars, with his famous captains.'
" Then the Mother of God said : ' The Prince Dimitri is not in his
place ; he should be leading the choirs of the martyrs ; but as for his
Princess, her place is in my flock.'
" Then the vision vanished. The candles were burning in the
church, the precious stones sparkled upon the altars, Dimitri came
to himself, wept abundantly, and spoke thus :
" * Know that the hour of rny death is at hand ; soon I shall be laid
in the coffin and my Princess will take the veil.' "
And now in the Cathedral of the Archangel, only a few rods
away, Dimitri's body lies buried, while a little farther away in
the Ascension Convent by the gate, are the relics of Eudoxia, the
good Czarina who became a saint after her death.
After all, the Kremlin, while it includes palaces and churches,
convents and monasteries, was originally the acropolis or citadel
of Moscow. Its walls were constructed for military defence;
and in the days when fighting was done by archers instead of
musketeers and artillery, they served fairly well at one time
and another against the fierce inroads of Tartars and Poles.
At the north end of the Kremlin stands the Arsenal; we
saw one side of it, a low, light-colored structure, north of the
Borovitski and Troitski Gates, when we first surveyed the citadel
from the roof of the Temple of Our Saviour (Stereograph 54).
Find on the Kremlin map the Arsenal, in the northern part of
the Kremlin enclosure, and note that we are to stand next near
its south-eastern corner and look north along its eastern wall.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 157
64. The Great Czar Cannon, Kremlin Arsenal, Moscow.
In the open square before the Arsenal there are ranged
nearly" nine hundred cannon captured at different times from
enemies on Russian soil; and, as if to still remind them that
Russia is their master, this enormous gun stands guard at the
corner of the building. It was cast in 1586, during the reign of
Feodore I, and weighs nearly forty tons. Energetic Peter the
Great, in the course of his national house-cleaning, melted up
and recast most of the cannon made before his own day, but
he took a fancy to spare this one giant for the wondering ad-
miration of future citizens and of strangers like ourselves. It
is a magnificent piece of metal work for its time, the era of
Henry of Navarre and William the Silent and Sir Francis Drake,
but how grotesquely clumsy and incapable in comparison with
the guns Russia so well knows how to handle today!
The building on our right is the Senate or Tribunal
where the Courts of Law are established. The tower that
we see beyond the old cannon is that of the Nicholas Gate
(Porte Nicholas) at the north-east corner of the Kremlin.
We have seen now all five of the Kremlin gates; the Troitski
and Borovitski (Stereograph 54), the Tainitski (Stereograph
55), the Spaski (Stereograph 57), and now the Nicholas.
At this Nicholas Gate there is a sacred picture almost as remark-
able as the one at the Spaski Gate, though people are not ab-
solutely obliged to pass through bare-headed in its honor. The
French troops had orders to destroy it, but their cannon (so
the tale is told) became " possessed " and missed fire, succeeding
after a while in splitting the tower, but leaving the picture and
the votive lamp before it quite unharmed.
158 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
The veneration of Russians for this Kremlin, the ancient
heart of their ancient city, is something deep-rooted. From cen-
tury to century traditions have been handed down to show how
the Powers of Heaven watch over Holy Moscow. This is a
characteristic bit of Russian rhapsody over it:
"Bow thy head, faithful child of Russia; the immortal Kremlin
rises before thee. It has grown great amid tempests, and, master of
its destiny, its biow laden with centuries, it stands powerful and stead-
fast, dominant above Moscow like the genius of glory. Here the
proudest spirit becomes humble, thought remains still ; but the heart
of a true Russian is flooded with joy."
But the city is not all for court pageantry, religion and war.
It seems much of the time while we are going about these curious
old streets, that the people who live here must lead story-book
lives like the characters in historical romances and in grand
opera, "Every sail on the horizon is enchanted except that of
the ship in which we sail." Yet, as a matter of fact, the simple
commonplaces of daily living are the rule. People prosaically
earn wages and salaries here, just as they do in our own Amer-
ican towns, and spend their wages as freely for all sorts of
temporary needs and fancies.
The popular shopping district of Moscow is in the Kitai
Gorod, another walled section of the city north-east of the Krem-
lin (Govodskaia on the general map). It is sometimes called the
"Chinese Town," but there is nothing Chinese about it. The
derivation of the name Kitai Gorod is not quite certain, but is
probably a corrupted repetition of the name of a town in south-
west Russia, where Helena, the mother of Ivan the Terrible, was
born. For three hundred years this commercial annex to the
Kremlin has been the resort of citizens with money to spend.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 159
We shall now take our stand once more on the east side of
the Kremlin Wall, near the Spaski Gate. This time, as the
Kremlin map shows, we shall look just west of north.
65, The Great Bazaar in the Kital Qorod, Moscow.
Here again, as on the Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg
(Stereograph 8), we find a vast number of retail shops brought
together in one long building and called the Great Bazaar. In
fact, the idea was no doubt carried from Moscow to St. Peters-
burg when Peter the Great issued orders that certain Moscow
merchants should straightway move to his new capital, and hence-
forward carry on their business there. Hundreds of retail shops
for every sort of goods are to be found here, and bargain-hunting
becomes a lively game when played with Russian shop-keepers.
Many of them expect to have their first price refused, and adjust
their schedules accordingly to make allowance for your objections,
expostulations, arguments and cajolery. The shops where metal
work is sold are naturally among the most popular with tourists.
And you need not be surprised to find each shop-keeper doing his
reckoning upon the abacus, a frame of wires on which beads are
strung for counting.
The square spread out before us is, you remember, the Red
Square, the scene of much bloodshed. We still have a reminder
of the Kremlin. Notice that shadow on the street, beyond this
iron fence near us. That shadow Is cast by the Sacred Gate, now
a few steps to our left The twin spires in the distance on the
left belong to the Resurrection Gate, one of the entrances to the
Kitai Gorod. The still darker building, only part of which we
see at the extreme left, is the historical museum. We shall look
l6o RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
at those buildings from a much nearer point soon, but on the way
we will stop and look at the central entrance of this great bazaar
on our right.
66. Central Entrance to the Great Bazaar, Kitai Gorod,
Moscow.
Would you believe it possible that this elegant modern build-
ing, its entrance flanked by electric lights, is within a few min-
utes' walk of the Kremlin cathedrals and the Sacred Gate, bits
of the Middle Ages, still with us? Even so; for there are plenty
of people in Moscow who know little of Its history, but care a
great deal about fashionably correct clothes and furniture, and
these prosperous folk keep large amounts of money in circu-
lation.
There is, however, one characteristic Russian detail which
makes this great Bazaar different from the great shops of Paris,
or Vienna, or Berlin, or London, or New York. It is the ikon
conspicuously placed over the front door, a head of Christ, is
it not? Every orthodox home and shop in Russia has at least
one ikon, often more than one, to preside over affairs and dispense
blessings.
They say that Moscow is gradually becoming a centre of
mercantile wealth, so many manufacturers and shop-keepers have
amassed large fortunes in various lines of trade. It was in
recognition of the public spirit and patriotic devotion of a Rus-
sian cattle-dealer in the seventeenth century that the monument
we see in the middle of that Square before us was erected in
1818, by "grateful Russia" as the inscription says. The monu-
ment represents citizen Minin of Nijni Novgorod urging Prince
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. l6l
Pojarski to free Moscow from the Poles (1612), and offering
his private fortune to support the movement.
As we stand here, of course, the Kremlin is behind us, and
off to our left is the historical museum and the gate we saw a
few minutes ago (Stereograph 65). If we make our way between
these passing droschkys and stand beside the statue of Minin
and Prince Pojarski, and look to our left, we shall get a good
view of those other interesting features of the Kitai Gorod.
67. The Historical Museum and Resurrection Gate of the
Kitai Gorod.
The Historical Museum of Moscow, housed in that cathedral-
like building before us, contains beautifully arranged representa-
tions and relics of various pre-faistoric ages and of the more
ancient historic eras.
The other two-towered building at the right of the statue is,
we can see now, really a gate. It is one of six, giving entrance
to this district, the Kitai Gorod, through the old walls. This
particular passageway is known as the Voskresenski or Resur-
rection Gate. The church near it to the right is Kazan Cathe-
dral (Cath. de Kazan). Just this side of that gate and the
Cathedral is a little chapel, with a bell in its white tower, which
is the home of one of the most famous ikons in all Russia, a
representation of the Virgin, called the " Iberian Mother of God "
(Porte Iberian Chap.). When a Russian Czar comes to Moscow
he visits the chapel to pray before this holy picture, before go-
ing on to the 'Kremlin, and every day hundreds of humbler wor-
shippers visit the shrine with their petitions or thanksgivings.
A. unique custom connected with this "Iberian Mother" is that
12 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
of sending the ikon out to visit worshippers who cannot go to
the church to solicit the special blessings desired. The picture,
when being sent to visit a sick-bed, a bridal or a house-warming,
is taken in a carriage of state, and all along its route people
respectfully bare their heads as it passes by.
The more or less elegant people who go shopping in the
Great Bazaar (Stereograph 65) are, we know, not all that dwell in
Moscow. There are plenty of people in this big city who have
to count their kopecks carefully, and they cannot afford to
patronize the shops in the Great Bazaar, where high rents give
the shop-keepers an excuse for large prices. So it happens that
there are, even in this same district, many small shops and out-
of-door booths where goods are cheaper. We will visit one of
these markets, located, as we see on our Kremlin map, about one-
third of a mile north-east of the Kremlin,
68, The Market 10 the Kitai Gorod, Moscow.
Felt hats, rugs, blankets, pots and dishes, all sorts of com-
mon wares are here. No doubt if we should walk a few rods
down this street, we should find a seller of tall boots, such as
the lower-class men and boys almost invariably wear. See, the
men around us here all wear boots, tall and wrinkle-legged, made
for service if not for beauty.
Is this a knife and scissors-grinder right here beside us?
His long apron, with its " bib " fastened about his neck, is a sort
of garment worn by workmen in many, different trades. If it
were winter instead of summer most of these men would be
wearing sheepskin coats, made with the hair inside and the skin
outside for the sake of extra warmth.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 163
Ordinary working folk, like our friends here, make their
rough clothes do long, hard service and so often have the effect
of being less neat about their persons than they really are. Here
in Russia the peculiar vapor baths, which we have imitated under
the name of " Russian baths," are a cheap luxury and well
patronized by comparatively poor people.
But the diet of these people is a good deal restricted, both
by the expense of the best food-stuffs and by the rigid require-
ments of the Russian Church in regard to the observance of her
innumerable fast-days, when even milk, cheese and eggs are a
forbidden indulgence. Their main dependence is on fish, cucum-
bers, cabbage and rye-bread, and they drink a good deal of weak
tea and strong whiskey (vodka).
In old times, before the days of Peter the Great, it would
have been an almost unheard-of thing to find grown men here
in Moscow, or, in fact, anywhere in the empire, with smooth-
shaven faces. The traditions of early days in Russia were more
Asiatic than European, and the men took great pride in long
and bushy beards. But when Peter came home from his travels
in Holland and England, he brought western styles with him.
In 1705 he issued a decree that all civil officers should shave
their beards, and the military governors of the principal towns
were commanded to sacrifice even their moustaches. For a good
many years those who clung to this sort of personal decoration
had to apply and pay for a special license from the government;
but at the present time, when there are no enforced laws on the
subject, shaven faces are common everywhere.
There is one house in this district of the Kitai Gorod that is
of special interest to travellers in Russia, the birthplace o the
164 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
first Romanoff ruler of Russia, Czar Michael, from whom all
the Czars since his death in 1645 are descended. It is situated
about one-quarter of a mile east of the Spaski Gate in the Kremlin
Wall (Mais, de Romanov, on the Kremlin map).
69. Roinaeoff House, Moscow, Birthplace of Michael, First
Czar of the Reigning: Dynasty.
Are you surprised by the modern look of this old mansion?
After it was sacked by the French, in 1812, it had to be restored
and, indeed, practically rebuilt so far as interior details are con-
cerned. As it now stands, it is practically a restoration of a
typical nobleman's house of the early part of the seventeenth cen-
tury, wine cellars in the basement, kitchens next above, study
and reception rooms on the next floor, and bed-chambers at the
top of the house.
They were stormy times here in Moscow in the early days
of the seventeenth century. Ivan the Terrible and his son,
Theodore I, had died. The reigns of Boris, the brother-in-law
of Theodore (builder of the bell-tower), and Theodore II, son of
Boris, had seen ghastly quarrels for the throne, quarrels made
Intensely dramatic by the appearance of two successive claimants,
each professing to be a certain son of Ivan the Terrible, who really
had been murdered in childhood. Then the Poles descended on
suffering Moscow, and the Polish prince Ladislas ruled here
until the Russians could bear him no longer, and he was
driven out.
We have seen (Stereograph 66) a statue raised to com-
memorate the united devotion of arms (Prince Pojarski) and
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 165
capital (Citizen Minin) that succeeded in driving out the Polish
governor. It was after all this had happened, when the suc-
cession of the old dynasty was hopelessly lost, that a new dynasty
was deliberately founded. Special fasting and prayer were recom-
mended for the entire population, even the children, that the na-
tional choice might have the favor of heaven; and an assembled
convention formally elected young Prince Michael Romanoff,
the heir of a distinguished family, son of a boyar who had
become a metropolitan in the Russian Church.
There is an old story that the Poles sent a deputation to
murder Michael when he was at Kostroma, and that a Russian
peasant, by the name of Ivan Sousanin, professing to act as their
guide, purposely misled them into the deep forest where he
gladly accepted death at their exasperated hands rather than
betray his prince. A favorite Russian opera by the celebrated
Russian Composer Glinka, often given at the large theatres in
Moscow and St. Petersburg, "A Life for the Czar," is based on
this old story. Whether its details are true or not, Michael him-
self, the boy whose childhood had been spent in this house be-
fore us, lived to rule and rule well, and Nicholas II, who rules
today, is one of the same line.
Swinging now around to the west of the Kremlin, we shall
see the beautiful Rumiantsof Museum (Musee Rumiantsov
on the Kremlin map) and catch sight again of a familiar land-
mark.
70. Rumiantsof Museum, Moscow.
Another fine Moscow dwelling-house that has been remodeled
and made into a public building is this former palace of the
1 66 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
Pnshkof princes, standing here west of the Kremlin, on the side
opposite the district of the Kitai Gorod. It is a massive, digni-
fied structure, though, so far as architectural style is concerned,
.its Renaissance fagadc might be anywhere else in Europe as well
as in Moscow. They use it now for a public library, archaeolog-
ical museum and picture gallery, and its contents are distinctively
Russian enough, even if the exterior does have a non-committally
cosmopolitan air.
And Moscow as a whole is always Russian; for we cannot
look far in any direction without seeing the bulbous domes of
churches. That church just ahead of us now is the same Temple
of Our Saviour which we saw when we first entered Moscow
(Stereograph 49). When we looked from the roof of the Temple
(Stereograph 51), we saw this Library and Museum off towards
the north-north-east. Now we are looking nearly south-south-
west, towards our earlier point of view.
There are a great many attractive places in the suburbs of
Moscow; for the city has a large class of wealthy citizens who
have both money and time at their disposal, and frequent visits
of the royal family keep the old capital still distinctly in fashion.
Let us ride out on the Tverskaia road to the Petrofski Palace.
This Palace can be found on the general map of Moscow, some
three or four miles to the north-west of the Kremlin. We can
go by the democratic street-cars, or, if we wish to do the thing
more prettily, with a touch of Russian elegance, we can take a
troika.
71. Petrofski Imperial Palace, Moscow.
That is the Palace, but we cannot enter because the public
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 167
is not admitted. The building was begun in 1775 and finished
in the time of Paul. To this place Napoleon retired when the
conflagration drove him out of the Kremlin. One of the finest
grand-stands in Europe is found here.
But here we have an excellent opportunity to notice what an
imposing equipage a troika is. These three handsome grey horses
are guided, you see, by four reins, two for the middle horse and
one each for the outsiders. The oddity of the troika does not end
with its use of that gaily painted douga or arch over the shoulders
of the middle horse, nor with the gilded harness, decked with
dangling tassels. Its most striking characteristic is the varied gait
to which its three steeds are trained. The middle one trots and the
other two gallop, a combination which is very effective on the fine
promenades about the Palace and the park near-by. Indeed, the
neighborhood of the Palace is a favorite place to show off good
horses. There are races here at intervals all through the sum-
mer, and once in a while a great military review by the Czar,
like that which we saw at Krasnoe Selo, outside St. Petersburg.
There are fine horses in Russia. The Orloff breed is famous
all around the world, and even the common nags, with no ped-
igree to speak off, fly like the wind when urged a little.
One of the best modern writers of the country, Gogol, pays a
graceful compliment to this characteristic equipage of his native
land :
" Troika, troika-bird, who invented thee? Thou couldst be bom
only among an audacious people ; but art thou not, O Russia, the
brave troika that none can pass ? Where art thou going? Answer!
The troika does not answer; it flies onward and clears all obstacles."
Before we leave Moscow we shall want to buy one or Itwo
1 68 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
last souvenirs of the place. You already know the fine shops of
the Great Bazaar (Stereograph 65), but they say the best place of
all in which to pick up real treasures, curious pieces of mediaeval
silver and copper and hammered brass is in the Sunday-morning
market, over by the Suharof Tower at the north-east of the
Kremlin. This can be located on the general map of Moscow
only, about a mile and a half north-east of the Kremlin. The
number 147 indicates the location of the Suharof Tower.
72, The Great Sunday Market of Moscow.
That is the Suharof Tower straight ahead of us. So, you
see, we are looking west. Peter the Great built it on the site of
an old city gate, to commemorate the faithfulness of Colonel
Suharof and the troops under him, who had remained loyal at a
time when other regiments revolted. Peter was rather more
given to punishing the bad than thanking the good. We have
already seen (Stereograph 57) the walls where he stuck the heads
of the rebels after putting down this same revolt, and it is
agreeable to know he did a graceful thing in honor of those who
stood by him. It was his fancy always full of notions about the
sea and sea-craft to treat the tower like a tall mast and hang
deck-like galleries around it from bottom to top. At present,
"it has indeed a connection with water affairs, but very different
from any that Peter had in mind, for it has been made into a
reservoir for the city supply.
Well, Peter is dead and Colonel Suharof is dead, and so are
all the Streltsi, both loyal and rebel ; but trade goes on forever.
What a lively scene it is! We saw a few canvas-roofed booths
like these in a market-place in the Kitai Gorod (Stereograph 68),
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 169
but not nearly so many nor so fine. Every sort of merchandise
can be had here at one booth or another, the every-day necessi-
ties of steady-going Moscow citizens, cakes, candies and cheap
toys for country folks and children, and here and there a real
treasure for the art-lover, in the shape of a quaint, old bowl or
beaker, an ancient ikon looking as if St. Luke himself might have
painted it, or a bit of jewelry, fascinating in design and color.
If once we go the rounds of all these booths and run the gauntlet
of the loquacious vendors, we shall surely leave all our money
behind us I
Moscow, of all European cities, is the richest in churches.
It is a church, then, which shall be our last sight before we go
on to other parts of Russia. " One of the most typical is situated
on the Novinsky Boulevard, about a mile to the west of the
Kremlin.
73. Church of the Nativity, Moscow.
This is, indeed, a characteristic bit of Russia. We have this
fantastically decorated place of worship, standing for the Russian
religion, so impressive, with its ceremonial magnificence; we
have these loaded wagons, standing for the great industrial in-
terests that are so steadily growing greater, and promising better
prosperity for the whole country; we have the ubiquitous police-
man, standing for the organized government behind and under
the multiform national life.
This Church of the Nativity shows us the same bulb-shaped
domes that we have seen so many times here in Moscow, but
their crosses are more elaborately foliated than usual, and how
I7O RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
oddly they are arranged! Three in a row across the end of the
church farthest from the front entrance, those must be over the
part of the sanctuary where the altar stands. And see the taper-
ing steeples on which they rest, steeples like long inverted fun-
nels; are they not almost precisely like the steeples that budded
all over the roof of the Voznesenski Convent beside the Sacred
Gate (Stereograph 58) ? Those, however, lacked the blossom of
the domes. Those arches, too, about the roof and around the
base of the steeples, they remind us of similar details in the
finish of the Cathedral of the Annunciation (Stereograph 63)
and the Temple of Our Saviour (Stereograph 49). The Russians
seem to like that ogee arch, with a sharply pinched gable at the
highest part of the curve.
" Mother Moscow," " Holy Moscow," is full of churches.
Our first sight of the old capital from the Sparrow Hills (Stereo-
graph 47) showed us the old Convent and the Temple of Our
Saviour. Our last sight shall fittingly be this shrine of the
Eastern Church. Its ways of worship are strange indeed to our
western minds, yet not altogether strange. As a good old church
father observed a long time ago : " The way of truth is one,
but into it, as a never-failing river, flow streams from all sides."
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
NIJNI NOVGOROD.
When we were school-children studying the geography of
Europe, we learned that Nijni Novgorod, over east of Moscow
on the Volga river, was famous for its annual holding of the
great Russian fair. But the whole thing was vague and hazy in
our minds ; why this particular Russian fair should be noted away
around at the other side of the world was not usually explained.
Now we can clear the matter up for ourselves. We will go
down to Nijni Novgorod and see the fair "with our own eyes.
Our general map of Russia will show that Nijni Novgorod is
about two hundred and seventy-five miles east of Moscow.
Turning now to our special map of* Nijni Novgorod, we can
quickly get our bearings there. The Volga river flows towards
the east on the north of the city, and the Oka river comes from
the south and empties into the Volga, dividing the city into two
parts. On the bluff, a short distance from the right bank of
the Oka, near its confluence with the Volga, is a circle with the
number 74 in it, both in red. Two lines in red branch out from
near this circle toward the left (west), and each of these lines
has the number 74, without a circle, at its end on the map margin.
We are to stand first on the bluff from which the lines start,
and look out over the Oka, the bridge (Pont de la Foire) and
that section of the town which the lines enclose.
74. Nljni Novgorod, the Summer Market- Place of AH
Nations.
Here is one of the delightfully picturesque towns built partly
on hills and partly on a river-bank. Let us stand awhile by the
172 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
railing with this blouse-clad boy, and look off over the varied
scene at our feet.
Trees and roofs and shady open spaces, roofs and trees and
more roofs ! Is it the roof of a summer-house that we see in the
midst of the tree-tops beyond this flat roof at our feet? It looks
so from here We might know we were still in Russia by the
clustering domes of that great church, a perfect lace-work of
crosses. Surely that topmost cross over the central dome is dif-
ferent from any of the beautiful varieties we saw in Moscow,
the cross-pieces of the foliated arms seem to unite, giving the
effect of an open-work square floating over against the main
shaft. And are there other crosses silhouetted on the rounding
surface of that upper dome? That is a bit of church decoration
we had not observed before, though, you remember, the domes
of the Soldiers' Church in St. Petersburg were sprinkled with
stars (Stereograph 39). The more we see of these Russo-
Byzantine church buildings the better we like them. After our
first sense of their " queerness " wears off, we do feel, in spite of
all our prejudices in favor of the dear old cathedrals of France
and England, that there is something artistically well worth while
in their fascinating compound of barbaric gorgeousness and
Christian dignity.
As we know from our map, that is the Oka river that spreads
its waters out before us, a good-sized river too, but it is only a
tributary of the still greater Volga, *' Mother Volga," as the Rus-
sians call their greatest river, their highway to the Caspian Sea.
The point where the Oka and the Volga unite is a little farther
down-stream, to our right. We cannot quite see the Volga itself
from this point, but it is sweeping majestically along over at the
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 173
other side of that town to which the long bridge leads. And
the town, that Is Nijni Novgorod Fair,
A steep, zig-zagging street will take us down from the Upper
Town to that long bridge, and then we can cross to see the sights.
But on the way we shall stop to enter this church with the many
domes which we have been admiring.
75. Interior of the Church of the Nativity, Nijni Novgorod.
Just a glimpse into a single one of the forty or more Russo-
Greek churches of this old town. We have now an opportunity
to examine more closely some of the ecclesiastical furnishings
and decorations.
See, there is hardly a square inch of floor, wall or ceiling
that is not in some way adorned according to orthodox Russian
ideas of beauty and piety. The floor is inlaid with marble
mosaics, indeed, it is too fine for hard usage, and is thriftily
protected with striped matting. There is a bit of wall mosaic too,
that diamond-shaped panel, with decorative scrolls on the four
sides. Mosaics like this, made of small bits of colored marbles
ingeniously fitted together, are favorite forms of ornament in the
Eastern Church. The architects of old Byzantium (Constan-
tinople) developed mosaic work to a wonderful degree of perfec-
tion in their time, and we have to thank them, directly or indi-
rectly, for most of the good work that has been done in the same
line since. But Russia loves elaborately graven and carved
metal-work even better than mosaic. Just see those massive
double doors to which the striped matting leads. They are as
delicately wrought as a lady's watch-case; and, certainly, their
lavish magnificence does, from one point of view, help emphasize
174 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
the solemnity and mystery of the sacred precincts which they
guard.
There Is still another fine display of metal-work in the piece
of furniture which looks like a reading-desk, at the right of the
double doors, and yet another in the ikon which hangs above, set
in a many-rayed frame of gold like a monstrance.
Close by us, at our right, we see the favorite Russian elabora-
tion of the Latin cross, so used as to show the reason for the
extra cross-bars. The upper one is for the traditional inscription
over the head of the crucified Christ; the lowermost comes
opposite the feet of the hanging figure.
What enormous candles these are, beside and in front of the
cross ! Solid standards or candle-sticks seem almost indispensable,
considering their weight. Still the hanging candle-sticks, as we
see them here, are ingeniously planned for the support of the
wax column, and, with their glittering chains, add a great deal
to the splendor of the general effect. In the Russian Church,
as well as in the Roman Catholic, the offering of special candles
to some shrine is a favorite act of devotion, and, between such
gifts and the regular usage of the church authorities, there are
always forests of wax tapers to be seen in every house of wor-
ship. Just count those in sight now, without moving from this
one spot; you will find between thirty and forty.
Church property in Russia is immensely valuable. The parish
churches in the country are often shabby and ill-appointed, but
no sums are too great to be lavished on buildings in the larger
towns. The Synod has a capital of some twenty-five million
dollars and an immense annual income; for the average Russian
gives liberally to the church into which he has been born.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 175
Turning to the map again, we find another red circle enclos-
ing the number 76, near the bluff, by the eastern end of the
bridge (Pont de la Foire). The two lines in red which branch
out toward the left from the bluff have the number 76 at their
ends on the map margin. We are to look out between these two
lines now.
76. The Floating Bridge Over the Oka and the Fair of
Nijni Novgorod.
Now you can see a bit of the Volga, look ! That is Mother
Volga herself, moving off in the distance, to the right, in great,
sweeping curves, towards Astrakhan.
This long bridge which we saw in the distance (Stereo-
graph 74) may well look long. It is two-thirds of a mile across
the Oka at this point. There are no solid piers for the bridge.
As you see, it rests on floats, its solid supports being only at the
ends. Ten months in the year there is comparatively little busi-
ness passing over, but for six or eight weeks in midsummer the
Fair, over yonder, brings traders and visitors from all over the
empire. It is a sort of National Exposition, the lineal descendant
of a fair which used to be held here at Nijni Novgorod in the
fourteenth century, though it was for a time removed to St.
Macarius, seventy miles down the river,
No doubt, this family party father, mother and son are
likewise going to the Fair. Doesn't the good wife have an air of
being conscious of her best clothes? You will not find that
dignified matron carrying her purchases tied on the end of a
stick, like the plodding individual just passing by.
Droschkys are evidently to be hired here as in St. Peters-
176 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
burg and Moscow ; see them down there in the street by the head
of the bridge. We can go over the bridge by railway if we
choose. On either side of the bridge we find boats of different
sorts, barges, river steamers, all sorts of freight and passenger
craft.
The freighting done in connection with the Fair is a large
item, for the trade is done at wholesale, and the merchants
do not simply show samples of their goods; they have their
stock here and deliver at once to purchasing shop-keepers from
all parts of the country.
We remember seeing the ikon of the Saviour over the door
of the Bazaar in the Kitai Gorod (Stereograph 66). Every shop
in the Fair keeps to the same religious observance. And see,
there is actually a church towering over the roofs of the other
Fair buildings, a curious contrast to our western ways of con-
ducting commercial affairs. Here one can attend a service be-
tween bargains if he wishes. On the other hand, there is one
thing he distinctly can not do, either inside the Fair limits or
while crossing this long bridge, that is, to smoke. Vigilant police
officers are always on the watch to prevent any infraction of this
old-established rule. It is not a point of etiquette, but a measure
for the public safety; for fires are easily started here in August,
the time of the Fair, and one large fire might seriously cripple
many lines of business for a whole year. Traders not infrequently
secure here their entire year's supplies from the wholesale
dealers.
That white church which towers over the Fair buildings be-
longs to the Armenians. We cross the bridge now and take our
position in a cathedral, a short distance beyond the range of our
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 177
vision on the right, and look toward the south-west. This cathe-
dral, Alexander Nevsky, is Indicated on the map by the num-
ber 35.
77. That Cosmopolitan Mart, the Fair at Nljni Novgorod.
There is the Armenian Church on our right. The floating
bridge must be off to our left.
A National Exposition this truly Is, and yet there Is evi-
dently no attempt at architectural effect in Its housing or arrange-
ment. There are rows on rows of two-story shops like these,
with awnings over the narrow sidewalks, and within, every sort
of thing that anybody ever buys. In this respect it Is like a
multiplication of the city bazaars and markets; but it really is
a good deal more than that, for Its midsummer trade practically
fixes the price of staple goods for the next year. Merchants
from every part of the empire have branch houses here, not
simply the large dealers from St. Petersburg and Moscow, but
from far north and south, west and east. Tea Is brought overland
from China, to be sold here to Russian shop-keepers, who, in turn,
will sell it to the most inveterate tea-drinkers In Europe ; Bokhara
merchants come with their rugs; and, on the other hand, every
sort of Russian manufactured goods which can possibly meet
the needs or please the fancy of their Turkish, Armenian, Geor-
gian, Persian and Tartar neighbors finds its way here to tempt
pilgrims from the East and South. They say that the business
done here each year during the two months of the Fair amounts
to about two hundred million dollars !
Practically all these two-story buildings are shops. The few
taller structures are restaurants, lodging-houses, theatres and the
1 78 RUSSIA. THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
like; and there is more than a square mile of these buildings
among which we may wander, without counting other miles of
wharfage and open spaces piled with iron, timber and such heavy
or bulky stuffs as cannot be conveniently housed in large quan-
tities. Cottons, woolens, linens and silks are among the staples
of trade here during the brief exchange season in August. Corn,
furs, salt, pottery, leather and leather goods, dried fish, every-
thing, in short, is here, like the stock of a " general store " in an
American country village magnified to an enormous scale.
Russian peasants have little furniture in their houses, but
they generally manage to have a chest or two, serving for the
housewife's linen-closet, clothes-press and store-room. Great
numbers of such chests, gaudily painted, are sold here to country
shop-keepers, who utilize them as packing-cases to hold other
goods on the way home.
We move now, as the map shows, to a point in the street
(Nigegorodskaia) which leads from the Pont de la Foire or
floating bridge, and look back east across the bridge and to the
bluffs on the right bank of the Oka from which we first (Stereo-
graphs 74, 76) caught sight of the Fair.
78. One of the Busy Streets of the Fair of Nijni Novgorod.
In the distance are the frowning cliffs at the east of the
Oka. The floating bridge at the farther end of this street cannot
be seen.
"*AI1 sorts and conditions of men come here, many to sell,
many to buy, and many, like its, just to look on; sometimes, it
is "said, two hundred thousand people are on these fair-grounds
at once. Fortunately for hygienic conditions, the government
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 1 79
has for the last hundred and fifty years controlled the manage-
ment of affairs, and the lighting, sewerage, fire department and
police force are all kept in good condition.
Here is the omnipresent telegraph line extending the length
of the street, and a row of electric-light poles along the middle
of the street, as much at home as if they were in London or New
York.
Do see the swarms of cloth-caps and long-skirted coats !
Russians are devoted to them. Foreigners of all sorts are to be
seen here every day, and the natives become pretty well used to
them ; still, some of these people do seem to be regarding us with
a good deal of curiosity. See this little fellow in the blouse
who turns to gaze as he crosses the street. The young fellows
near him, at the tail of the wagon, are interested in us too.
The kerchief-wTapped women are too much absorbed in their
gossip with the owner of the wagon to notice us at all. Their
own affairs are of much more importance. But, if their indif-
ference is cool, there is a man standing just beyond them who
averages things by putting up his hands to shield his eyes and
staring at us unreservedly.
For our own part, we find no end of things to gaze at,
this patient horse, for instance, nodding under his awkward
douga with that strap-and-rope harness and the extraordinary
trace which connects the wagon-shaft and the protruding hub of
the wheel. It is evidently a peasant equipage, and the nioujik
proprietor is here to buy goods for a country shop, or to do job
teaming. Perhaps it is a problem of prices that he is talking over
now with the absorbed women-folk. All day the crowds come
and go, come and go, like this, through these streets of sho|>s.
l8o RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
There Is nothing fine about the buildings, and yet fortunes are
being made here and there all around us. Old frequenters of the
Fair tell how a Russian tallow merchant one year sent his son
to Nijni Novgorod with over a hundred thousand dollars' worth
of stock, and permission to have a good time after business had
been despatched. The young man promptly sold the tallow;
but his good time included so much riotous living at the theatres,
gambling-houses and wine-shops that he had not a kopeck to
take home with him, only a good deal of miscellaneous ex-
perience. They say that Russians, when they begin to throw
money about, do it in the most reckless, Oriental fashion; and
the Fair affords opportunity for as much brutal extravagance
as any raw boy could wish, set free for the first time in his life
from all restraint and provided with a fat purse.
Just behind bur present position, near the number 45 on
the map, is the Russian cloth market. That Is one part of this
temporary trade-city where goods are sold out in the open air.
It is an interesting sight, and we will visit it now.
79, Russian Cloth Market In the Fair of Nijni Novgorod.
Russia's textile industries are fast becoming enormously
important. Raw cotton is imported in huge quantities, and mod-
ern mill machinery is being introduced, greatly to the advantage
of large classes of working-people in Moscow and other large
towns. Mill owners are getting rich too. It is said that some
factories of this sort pay over 100 per cent., even 180 per cent,
dividends.
If we should walk around at our leisure among these piles
of woven stuffs, we should find some interesting home-woven
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. l8l
linens for towelling and similar uses, made by Russian peasant
women, and elaborately decorated with primitive embroidered
patterns and with lace-like effects of drawn threads.
It Is actually a relief to see a round cap (is it fur?), worn
by the young man just in front of us beyond the first bench of
goods. That is a sort of cap sometimes worn by the Czar him-
self. Yes, we saw him wearing one of nearly this shape, when
we were at Krasnoe Selo (Stereograph 46). It seems good to
see something different from the ubiquitous cloth-cap with its
visor over the eyes.
What is that little building yonder, with a pyramidal roof
supported by four columns ? Ah, yes, it must be a shrine of some
sort, for there is an ikon inside, and a tall cross surmounts the
roof. Evidently the bulls and bears and " corner " makers in
this market mean to keep on the windy side o' the law, so far
as heaven is concerned.
The Fair itself was opened, before we came, with a solemn
service of benediction; and, from time to time, sacred pictures
are taken about to visit special shops whose proprietor desires
to take every means to secure a prosperous season. The accom-
panying priests are well paid, the shop takes on temporarily a
holiday air, with candles and green boughs, and then the ikon
moves on to bless some other shop.
Another interesting place in this great Russian Fair is the
Chinese Row. This is found on the map (mais. chin.) a short
distance to the south of the Russian "Cloth Market
80. "Chinese Row," in the Market of AH Nations, Nijni
Novgorod.
Here, as we approach the headquarters of the tea-trade, we
1 82 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
meet a procession of teams of much the same general aspect as
the one we saw a short time ago in the main street (Stereograph
78). There are the same heavy dougas (they seem exaggerated
in height and clumsiness, compared with those on the Moscow
droschkys), the same protruding axles of the wheels, and the
same strange harness-connection between shaft and hub. The
drivers seem to be taking it easy, riding on their empty wagons;
poor fellows, they should not be grudged a little breathing-space,
for teamsters here during the crowded two months of business
have hard work and small wages for their portion.
Is not that street an extraordinary mixture of things? The
scalloped and pagoda-topped roofs look just like the China
of our grandmothers' saucers and tea-trays. The squatting
statues on the roof at our right have a Buddhist air about them.
And yet, they are almost literally in the shadow of that big
Rtisso-Greek cathedral with its swelling domes and aspiring
crosses. Evidently, East and West agree to disagree here, and
the lion and the lamb amicably tolerate each other.
This district through here is largely, though not entirely,
devoted to Chinese importations, but comparatively few China-
men are seen. The teas and other goods are handled by their
Russian importers.
The Fair is an excellent place in which to get an idea of the
material resources of Russia. Mere map acquaintance with the
boundaries of Siberia, for instance, might leave us doubtful why
the Czar should care so much about possessing that northern land,
but when one sees in the Fair booths the Siberian malachite and
lapis-lazuli and precious stones that all the rest of the world
wants to buy, he readjusts his ideas of the country. Furs and
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 183
hides of various sorts also come from Siberia in enormous quan-
tities. Let us come over to the bank of the Volga, north of our
present position, and see the stock piled up in the open air.
81. Siberian Hides and " Village of the Tartars," Nijni Nov-
gorod.
We are looking east again here, as our map shows plainly.
In the distance are the bluffs on the right bank of the Oka. And
clown on this river bank we are pretty close to nature. These
odorous skins are not long off the backs of their four-footed
owners. There are sheep-skins here, wolf-skins, skins of bears,
foxes, martens, even ermine.
These aproned workmen are Tartars, descendants of the
wild hordes that used to harass the Muscovite princes with their
bloody invasions, a peacable enough sort of Russian subjects at
present, though not over-clean and not very attractive in their
personal appearance. Many of them live through the time of
the Fair in these huts, scattered about among the piles of skins,
taking care of the stock, for it is immensely valuable in spite of its
smell.
The man with the fez and the striped blanket over his arm
is of a different sort. He looks as if he might " belong " some-
where down in the Caucasus region. Russia's children are so
many and of such varied birth! Extremes meet in the matter
of her population.
Siberian rivers on the one hand and the Caucasus mountains
on the other hand used to be worlds apart, but the Russia of
today is taking advantage of modern inventions. The river over
there where we see the clustering masts is dotted thick with
1 84 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
steamboats too; there is now little, if any, of the old-tinie painful
dragging of freight barges up the Volga by men walking a tow-
path ; and the days of caravans bringing goods overland from the
East are steadily retreating into tradition. The railroad train
that we see over yonder (those are the cars near that long, low
shed, straight ahead of us, just below the dome of the distant
cathedral) is gradually transforming life in the Czar's dominions.
Perhaps it may bring about the abolition of this very Fair. It
was planned and organized centuries ago, when it constituted
the only feasible method of effecting bargains at wholesale. If
it were not that Russia is, " in streaks," the most conservative of
all civilized countries, the Fair would probably have passed out
of existence before now, replaced by some up-to-date system of
selling by sample; but, as it is, the institution will probably be
kept up for several years yet. There will be time for us to come
again!
All about us here the country stretches away like a constantly
unrolling map, with little variety in it; only the villages scat-
tered here and there remind the traveller that this region, too,
is peopled with men and women who have their own interests
in life, their own hopes and fears, pleasures and disappointments.
It will be worth our while to cross the Volga north of us and
go out several miles to some country village to get at least a
glimpse of country life among the ordinary moujiks or peasant
farmers.
82. A Characteristic Country House In the Heart of Russia,
This home, for instance, is a fair average of those we find all
through the south central part of Russia, a log house, or isba,
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 185
its cracks filled with mud or moss, and a patient, hard-working
family with small ambitions beyond that of harvesting crops
enough to last the year out and keeping the cows in good condi-
tion. Do the women- folk do the milking? It looks as if they
did; are not those milk-pails which the older woman is carrying
by means of the long yoke over her shoulder? No doubt, she
is weather-wise too, and knows that if a light-colored cow leads
when the herd comes home at night (that is the barn over yonder
behind the roof of the well), it will be fair the next day, but if
a dark cow leads, a storm is coming. The little boy who regards
us doubtfully from the shelter of his mother's petticoats, prob-
ably goes to a village school, schools are more common than
they were when his father was a boy, but it is a small dose of
wisdom they administer to him there. His lore is mostly made
up of his grandmother's tales, how the fire- flies darting about
here over the grass on a summer night are the souls of unbap-
tized babies; how a heavy July thunder-storm is caused by St.
Ilija (Elijah) dashing across the sky in a chariot of fire, and
how it is St. George that makes the trees grow. He has a good
time on the whole; he eats raw cucumbers and sun- flower seeds
as our own urchins devour apples and peanuts, and when he
grows up he may feel, in his own way, the same attachment to
this well and its water-bucket (see it resting on the curb) that
our own familiar song expresses for the American.
In one respect, however, his prospects are radically different
from those of American boys, for, if he is able-bodied and not
the only son, he is to be sent off into military service.
Just look again at the blonde-bearded peasant who sits with
folded arms on the log just this side of the well. Has he not a
186 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
curiously suggestive resemblance to some of the imaginary pic-
tures of Christ, not ikons, but the paintings of modern German
artists? His is a type often seen in Russia and remarked by
other travellers besides ourselves.
If these people should invite us inside the house, there are
two things we should be sure to find, an ikon on the wall, to
bespeak the favor of heaven, and a bake-oven for cooking the
coarse rye-bread which is the Russian moujik's mainstay. Most
likely there are no bedsteads at all, for the family are used to
sleeping on rough benches up against the house- wall ; only in
cold weather the rheumatic grandmother or the delicate daughter
may stretch herself out along the top or side of the brick oven
to take advantage of its heat. Probably there is a rude hand-
loom over in one corner, where the women make for themselves
their coarse house linens, and very likely this good-natured house-
wife would, if she knew us a little better, bring out for our
admiration a bit of crude but effective needlework, " drawn "
work or embroidery, or both, for women take to it the world
over, and Russian country women often have fingers more deft
than they look.
Friday is a species of religious holiday in these country places,
so far as housework is concerned. The traditions of the day
involve a tangled confusion of Christian saints and old Slavonic
goddesses, but the amount of it is that Mother Friday Prascovia
especially abhors finding any spinning, weaving or sewing in
progress on her day.
There is an old Russian folk-tale, which no doubt these
women know by heart, about a woman who once sat in the house
spinning flax on a Friday, when all at once the angry saint
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 187
appeared and punished her by stuffing her eyes full of dust from
the flax. Such a time as the wretched creature had, blinded and
aching! But she repented and prayed, and promised never to
be so bad again, and the next night while she was asleep her eyes
were restored.
The saint does not always blind women who are so disrespect-
ful of her known desires, but she does often send them sore eyes
and fingers, and work begun on a Friday never prospers, never !
1 88 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
KIEF.
Still another part of Russia well worth a journey is the
southern region by the Black Sea. The best way to make this
journey is to return to Moscow and then go by rail from Moscow
down through Kursk and Kief to Odessa. The general map
of Russia shows the route. The railway from Moscow leads
through miles upon miles of forest, pasture and tillage land,
almost level with a few low, rolling hills.
This south-western part of the empire is known as Little
Russia; it is rich not only in farm-lands but in songs and folk-
tales as well.
The great emphasis placed upon religious observances in the
land of the Czar is something noticeable wherever we may go,
but there is one particular town, Kief, the one to which we are
now going, whose ancient traditions make it a sacred spot in the
eyes of the devout. It is the earliest Russian stronghold of the
Christian Church.
Let us turn to the special map of Kief and get a general idea
of the city first. The Dnieper river practically bounds the city on
the east. The Podol section of the city, on the north, is on a
plain near the river level, but the main part is picturesquely
located above the bluffs on the west bank of the Dnieper. Near
the center of the section on the bluffs is the principal street
(Krestalatikskaia), running almost north and south. The num-
ber 83 in red, enclosed by a circle in red, is near the southern
end of this street. We are to stand now in the street near this
point and look north.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 189
83. Principal Street of Ancient Kief.
Electric street-cars in the town where the ancient Slav people
used to worship Perun, the northern Jupiter, wielder of thunder-
bolts ! The world does move. Kief is a busy place. There are
nearly two hundred thousand people who live here all the time,
and when swarm of pilgrims come here to pray at the shrines
of the old saints who first introduced Christianity into Russia,
the number may be temporarily doubled. Just now we see the
ordinary life of the city.
The omnipresent droschky, you see, is still at your service
if you want to explore the streets off the regular line of electric
cars; and, indeed, we shall need it, for there are tremendously
steep hills to climb before we see the more picturesque parts of
the city.
The people whom we meet and pass chatter Russian to each
other, or hurry along about their errands to be done in the pros-
perous-looking shops. Even if we cannot read the lettered signs,
we can, in many cases, tell at once what goods are kept for sale,
for the Kief shop-keepers (indeed, most Russian shop-keepers)
obligingly make allowances for the unlettered condition of a large
class bf their native-born customers, and display pictorial signs
too. Who but a blind man could help knowing that this shop on
our left is for the sale of music and musical instruments ? If we
could walk leisurely down the street and examine the other signs,
we should find them equally explanatory. By the way, the Rus-
sian alphabet itself, so ornamental, if unintelligible to us western-
ers, is said to have been largely the invention of the Byzantine
monks, who made a missionary journey into these lands away
back in the ninth century.
19 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
This city, all about us here, is really one of the oldest towns
in Russia, though, as to building, it is like the boy's jack-knife,
repaired by the substitution of a new blade and a new handle.
Since its founding, a thousand years ago, it has been the scene
of so many "battles, sieges, fortunes," so many times its build-
ings have been destroyed in the course of successive wars waged
by Scandinavian, Moscovian, Tartar and Polish princes, that
most of those standing are surprisingly modern. All the same,
the city was here, in another form, away back in the times of
King Alfred of England and Charlemagne.
The country round about Kief is a prairie or " steppe " region,
and if we go up on one of the high hills of the town, we can
look off for miles and miles up the beautiful Dnieper river. Turn-
ing to our map again, we find a red circle enclosing the number
84, just north of the street at which we are looking. Two red
lines branch out from this circle towards the north-east, and each
of these lines has the number 84, without a circle, at its end
on the map margin. We take our stand now at the place indicated
by the apex of these two lines and look over the territory between
them.
84. Alexandrofski Slope and the Winding Dnieper River,
Kief.
Truly, this is the sort of landscape one ought to be able to
see in the greatest empire on earth. As far as the eye can reach,
this fertile plain stretches out before us, and the great river lies
in lazy majesty on its breast. It is the third largest river in
Europe, this winding stream. Only the Volga and the Danube
are longer. And as it leads from a point near Moscow down to
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 191
the Black Sea, opposite Constantinople, the key to the Mediter-
ranean, it is easy to see how important it is as a water highway,
both for commercial and for political reasons.
There are a great many fine descriptions of the Dnieper in
Russian literature. Gogol says of the stream in midsummer
weather :
"There is no ripple cm the \\ater. . . . You look and you do
not know if this majestic surface is in movement <r motionless; one
might say it was of glass ; set one is conscious that this pathway, blue
as a mirror, immense in its width, infinite in its length, is springing
forwards and eddying onwards."
This is the old Cossack country, the home of poetry and song
and of wild adventures told us in our story-books. It was in
this very town of Kief that Mazeppa, the hero of Byron's wild-
horse story, lived in the days of Peter the Great ; indeed, he built
a monastery and various churches here. One cannot help wonder-
ing what the old chieftain would think of the rides taken by
sober citizens of Kief today, flying down these steep side-hill
streets in these smart little trolley-cars, drawn by the very light-
ning itself. A first experience of it would perhaps be as startling
as a ride on a wild horse fresh from the Ukraine steppes.
Here we are looking, as we know, towards the north-east.
Let us go next to a point on that elevation, with a path leading
up to it, off to our left, and look back to our right; that is,
down the Dnieper, towards the south-east. The map shows this
position clearly by the lines which start a little above and to the
left of our present location, and extend toward the lower right-
hand corner of the map*
192 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
85. The St. Vladimir Monument and the Murmuring Dnie=
per, Kief.
It was a happy thought to station the bronze figure of the
old tenth-century Grand Duke where he could look off over
the land he formally Christianized. It is true there had been
individual Russian converts to Christianity before Vladimir's
day, but he took the people with him when he abandoned the
old Slavonic paganism for the tenets of the Eastern Church,
and the inhabitants of Kief were obediently baptized by thousands.
Tt was from one of these high hills overlooking the Dnieper
that Vladimir, with courage equal to his convictions, ignomin-
iously pitched the great image of Perun, the god of thunder,
whom he had used to worship. No half-way attitude of " Good
Lord, good devil, "[for sturdy Vladimir !
This is his own statue now, in monkish robes, supporting
the cross of his faith with his strong right arm, how strong
the Poles and the Tartars knew to their sorrow!
Our former position (Stereograph 84) was in the ravine
just beyond this statue. The black smoke-stack, down on our
left here, was just visible to us then at our extreme right. We
turn about now and look off, from the cliff behind us, to the
north over the Podol section.
86. The Podol Portion of Ancient Kief, Little Russia.
There is the Dnieper again, down at our right
What a mass of flat-bottomed freight-boats on the river-
bank! Practically all the secular business of Kief is done in
the section before us, and Kief as a whole is one of the most
important trade centres in " Little Russia," as this south-western
EUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 193
region Is popularly called. The traffic is heavy both by river and
by rail. We see many more trees here than in Moscow or St.
Petersburg, and that is natural, considering that we are now
almost seven hundred miles south of the Neva. Kief is in about
the same latitude as Prague and Frankfort and the coast of
Cornwall. There is a good deal of wealth here. The merchants
are in the heart of the richest agricultural section of all Russia,
and the churches and monasteries are the resort of thousands and
thousands of pilgrims and excursionists- who buy ikons and
candles and blessed bread, and leave offerings besides, in thanks-
giving to their favorite saints, for benefits received. Some of
the most sacred relics are the skulls of monks who long ago dwelt
in cells hollowed out of the face of precipitous cliffs, like that
on which we are standing now. They were the first monastic
brethren in all Russia, and their memory is very dear to the
devout among their countrymen.
Sick people come here to Kief to pray for health. People
with burdens of sin and misery come here to pray for pardon
and peace. And, since they believe that the monks who lived here
so long ago can help present their petitions at the throne of God,
they come with hope, and often go away with great satisfaction.
There are so many, so many ways In which the human heart
reaches out for help !
In this world of ours, all sorts of things are queerly mixed
together. Tragedy rubs elbows with Comedy. The most sacred
experiences jostle against the most commonplace routine. Just
when the emotional, dramatic aspects of this pilgrimage-centre
are fresh in our minds, as we pass down through this little,
wooded park on our way around to the Upper Town with its
194 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
shrines and monuments, we shall be able to meet a most grotesque
procession of milkmaids!
87, The Milkmaids of Kief.
Aren't they comical to see, with their big feet, their clumsy
wadded and belted frocks (the isvostschicks do not monopolize
the portly figures!) and that peculiar, enveloping head-gear?
Evidently there is no need to preach here the gospel of woman's
emancipation from the thralldom of trailing petticoats. Our
American a Rainy Daisies " are conservative in comparison. But,
after all, it is merely unfamiliar ity that makes a thing " queer."
Probably these women think we are the extraordinary folk, our-
selves, staring as we do at simple milk-jars carried home just
as they have always been carried every day for years. Pray,
have we come from a land where there is no milk? Did we never
see earthern jars carried in that way, by means of a stout pole
across the shoulder? But where in this world can we have lived
(they doubtless think), not to know a simple thing like that?
Why, that is the way to carry milk! How else should one do it?
Very early every morning these peasant women and many
more come in from the outlying villages to bring fresh milk to
the townsfolk. Patient beasts of burden they are! The lot of
American farmers' wives is hard enough, but it is ease and
luxury in comparison with what these faithful souls plod through
with little murmuring.
There is not much feminine charm about any of these sturdy
workers. But isn't that a good-natured grin of amusement on the
face of the nearest *' maid " ? No doubt she wonders at our eager
interest in her and her mates. If you could tell her about the
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 195
lives of American women at home, do yon suppose it would make
her unhappy? Luckily, no. There is a certain inertness and
stolidity about these Russian peasants that affords pretty effec-
tual protection against the assaults of ambition or the stings of
useless envy. And home is home, even if it means only a bare,
dirty, little cab:n four miles from Kief, with unruly cows to
milk before daybreak and a husband who spends too much on
corn-brandy ! Is it not fortunate that we do not all yearn for
just the same things?
These are genuine country people of Russia, the kind of
peasants who figure in the Russian novels. This type has been
studied quite faithfully from the literary standpoint by modern
authors. But peasant life has been studied, too, from the stand-
point of aesthetics. The Russian stage has made a good deal of
the possibilities of the national peacant costumes. We shall go
now to a theatre garden where we can see the members of a
theatrical troupe, carefully costumed according to the holiday
custom, of certain districts of Russia.
88. The Fairy-land of Little Russia.
Of course, only the more well-to-do peasants could dress
like this; but the clothes are truthful reproductions of the gen-
uine gala attire of prosperous country folk, and far more pic-
turesque and striking than the sort of thing we see at home.
With us a commonplace following of city fashions prevails every-
where in the country districts. That is one disadvantage of the
establishment of easy communication between all parts of a
country; picturesque differences in people's modes of dress,
speech and manner die out, and a dull, mediocre uniformity takes
196 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
its place. Perhaps, for poetry's sake, we should regret the rapid
extension of railroads here in the Ukraine!
Do you object that these costumes are impossibly fine for
peasants ? Maybe they are a bit extravagant, but men and women
the world over do love fine clothes. Don't you remember how
even in puritan New England, in the early colonial days, people
spent their hard-accumulated shillings for broadcloth capes and
gowns of silk brocade and lace ruffles? These precious bits of
finery were not often donned; but Ebenezer and Prudence and
Dorothy wore their everyday homespun and linsey-woolsey with
a proud consciousness of the ability to appear in gorgeous array
on suitable occasions.
National costumes like these we see now are exceedingly
popular in Russia. There is a large party enthusiastically de-
voted to the cultivation of everything characteristically Russian
and to the vigorous Russianizing of everything else. Ladies have
had a "fad" for wearing so-called peasant costumes, for patri-
otism's sake. Indeed, when the young Czarina was crowned
in 1894, she wore her hair in long, hanging plaits, peasant fashion,
and by so doing made the people more than ever enthusiastically
in love with her.
Red, green and dull blue are usually the favorite Russian
colors. They make a great deal of embroidery in this half-
Oriental country. See how much is done with it in these very cos-
tumes, even those of the men. That is a gorgeously elaborate
shirt-front. And how girls of the peasant class do love beads!
Do you remember the nurse we met in St. Petersburg (Stereo-
graph 9) and her impressive necklace? The festoons that these
make-believe peasants wear are only a slight exaggeration of
the actual practice in real life.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE, 197
All the members of this troupe have probably learned their
profession In some great government school of acting, under
professors of elocution, of music* of dancing and all the other
details that go to make up a complete equipment for the stage.
Russia takes the drama and the opera more seriously than we do,
and is more critical of the stage from the artistic standpoint.
They say some of the cleverest young French actors and actresses
go first to Russia to try their wings. If they can please a critical
Russian audience they may return with confidence to Paris.
Don't you wish you could wait and see this little company
give some representation on the stage? If we linger a little,
will they not begin? Will not that pretty, provoking damsel
who stands by the pedestal of the big urn condescend to really
smile just once? She is a cold-hearted coquette, that girl. So
long as we watch her, she will not move so much as an eyelash ;
but, once we have turned away, it will be quite another story.
Our accidental meeting with the milkmaids (Stereograph
87) has led us away from the main interest of Kief. You surely
wish to see the interior of the famous cathedral of St. Vladimir ?
It was named for the stern old duke, the savage fighter and
zealous missionary whose statue we saw a little while ago near
the top of the hill above the river (Stereograph 85). The memory
of Vladimir Is perpetuated everywhere about Kief, but the most
imposing memorial of all is perhaps this great church, visited
every ' year by throngs of pilgrims. It is the most beauti-
fully decorated church in the whole country, if the decora-
tions are to be judged by western taste. Here, as everywhere in
Russia, there are ikons without number, but In this particular
church there are also really beautiful paintings by modern artists.
I9& RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
On the map we find this cathedral (Catliedr. St. Vladimir)
nearly half a mile to the west of the main street which we visited
first.
89. Interior of the Vladimir Cathedral, Kief, Most Beauti-
fully Decorated Church in Russia.
Is it not like a great jewel-box? Only in this instance a
great deal of the crowded ornament has some distinct, religious
significance. It means or did once mean something of vital
importance 'to the devout worshipper. Of course, every cross
is a reminder of Christ's passion and death. In several places
(see, on this square pillar at the left) there are four dots or
spots of ornament close around the cross ; those are symbolic
of the four Evangelists or of the gospels they wrote. Sometimes
the four arms of the cross itself were meant to remind the faith-
ful of the four Evangelists. Then, do you see several places
where the ornament is made up of figures grouped in threes?
Those groups of threes are to call to your mind the doctrine of
the Trinity. On both this pillar and its mate at the other side of
the church there seems to be occasionally a suggestion of some-
thing like a vine, stiffly conventionalized into formal curves.
Wherever the vine appears as a feature of ecclesiastical decoration
it signifies the True Vine of which Christ talked to His
disciples.
It takes a little time to grow used to the deep shadows in
these cathedral interiors. Can you make out now the majestic
figure of the holy Mother and Child above the altar-screen, on
the farther wall? It was painted not many years ago by one of
the ablest of nineteenth-century Russians, Voznesenski ; and, in
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 199
the face of all the national prejudice In favor of stiff, unreal
ikons, this simple, dignified painting has succeeded In touching
the heart of the people to a remarkable degree. It is now one
of the most widely known and admired pictures in the whole
country; for the fact that so many thousands of pilgrims come
here every year from all parts of the empire has naturally served
to spread Its fame. The space devoted to the picture is one of
special honor. Does it not seem as If all these gorgeously
ornamented walls and pillars and arches were in themselves a sort
of ceremonial setting for the dignified simplicity of the Virgin
with the wonderful Child in her arms?
If you look again at the details of the wall-decorations, you
can find interesting traces of the Oriental Inheritance of our
Russian cousins. They are by nature almost *more Asiatic than
European, these Slavic people. You see that enormous chandelier
just at our right as we stand here, two huge crowns bearing
close-ranked candles ready for lighting? Just beyond that chan-
delier, on the curving inner surface of the arch, you see the formal
figure of a saint In a robe stiff with embroidery. Look at the
ornament on the wall, just a little above the saint's head, and you
will find quaint "palm figures" just like the ones that delighted
your childish soul In the border of your grandmother's cashmere
shawl, and just such as you find today in India prints. Higher
up, do you see two drooping figures that look like grass blades
with daisy disks strung upon them, bent over by their weight?
Those are very much like bits of Persian decorative fancy that
you may see in art museums or in books on decorative design.
Authorities in these matters account for such traces of the Orient
in two ways. The Greek architects who were brought here from
200 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
Constantinople in the early days of Russian Christianity knew a
good deal about things Oriental, because of their living in a
city of cosmopolitan population, with extensive eastern trade.
The Greeks of Constantinople were in the habit of combining
things Christian with things pagan with delightful frankness, just
as the early church festivals combined memorials of the new faith
with reminiscences of heathen feast-days. Again, here in Russia,
the later dominion of the Tartar princes, Asiatic as they were
from beginning to end, left additional traces of eastern fancy
and eastern mannerisms on the work of architects and artists.
Today, conservative Russia repeats whatever has been previously
done, without much thought of its remote origins.
It will pay us to go up into the galleries of the cathedral,
where there are s@me other famous pictures by Russian artists.
The light will be better up there, so that we can examine the
paintings with more satisfaction.
90. "The Birth of Jesus," Vladimir Cathedral, Kief.
We are allowed to come thus far towards the altar at the
front end of the gallery, honored with this fine Nativity. In
this case the interposition of the altar- screen seems to heighten
the aesthetic effect; it holds us at a little distance, implying that
our attitude should be that of reverence. The gorgeousness of
marble and malachite, mosaic and metal-work in the screen and
its massive doors is like a heralding with music. The painting
itself is thoroughly Russian, and yet it shows the influence of
study outside the conventional lines of the monkish painters of
ikons. This is the work of an artist. The light of the Star in
the East streams down on the Child in the cradle, making His
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 2O1
tiny figure the focal point of the whole picture, the point our eyes
instinctively seek first. The Virgin's delicate, ascetic face is very
lovely, and just far enough removed from the simply human to
make that stiff halo seem perfectly fitting and appropriate. The
dusky figures of the worshippers at the right of the cradle are
full of dramatic suggestiveness, and the distant hillside, where
the trees stand silhouetted against the first light of morning,
makes an exquisite background for the whole. If all the holy
pictures in the Czar's land were as good as this, we could easily
understand their hold on the imagination of the common people.
Just now, as it happens, these tall, spool-shaped stands are
quite bare of candles, but oftener every one of the little candle-
sticks they hold bears a taper, symbolic of adoration and prayer.
The oil lamps swinging before the pictures on the screen serve
to keep up perpetual devotion while the candles are being removed
and renewed. In many of these churches there are lamps that
burned continuously for years at a time.
Just see that odd halo behind the head of the figure at the
right, a Greek cross inside a circle. Five different kinds of halos
we can see from here at this minute, without counting any details
of those beautiful panels in the double doors through which the
priests come and go! Religious paintings in the Greek Church
do not have a great variety of subject, but their artists do manage
to secure interesting and artistically effective variety in working
out the same subjects over and over.
At the opposite side of the church there is another gallery
with a painting of the Resurrection. Let us see that also.
202 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
91. "The Resurrection, " Vladimir Cathedral, Kief.
It is easy to see what a profound impression a picture like
this must make on the minds of people whose only knowledge of
Christian traditions has been through oral teachings, who have
no books. These pictures in Vladimir Cathedral are famous all
over the country, for, while they do have a good deal of merit
from the purely artistic standpoint, they are to the average
illiterate Russian an almost miraculously lifelike presentation of
holy things to the sense of sight. This open door of the tomb
where flowers burst into blossom, this worn body and mysterious
face of the risen Christ, these become wonderfully real to the
devout worshippers here. Henceforward he has a definite mental
image to call up whenever he thinks of the old story. Thousands
and thousands of pilgrims come every year to Kief from all
parts of the empire, many of them from remote country regions
where no good pictures were ever seen. A visit to this cathe-
dral, a chance to say a prayer before this altar, perhaps to leave
a candle for one of those tall stands of candlesticks, it is the
one great event in an otherwise uneventful life. Every Easter
morning, all over the empire, the familiar greeting between
friends and neighbors is " Christ is risen ! " " He is risen in-
deed I " Those who have ever made the pilgrimage to Kief no
doubt think of this picture as they repeat the traditional phrases.
The "Virgin and Child," painted on the screen at the left
of the doorway, is a beautiful piece of work, and deserves the
admiration devoted to it by the devout.
Just see how the Russian predilection for domes expresses
itself again in the ornamental finials of these marble posts. They
are like the roofs of tiny cathedrals.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 203
And here is another bit of architectural inheritance from the
past a curious bit of art history. Don't you know how a child's
face, or his voice, or some trick of his manner, will surprise you
by bringing to life again the very look or gesture of his grand-
father or his great-uncle some far-back and long-dead man of
the line from which he springs? Here we have a case of that
very persistence of an inherited way of doing things ; and it goes
back to Egypt, even before the days of Moses and that storied
Pharaoh who would not let the Israelites go.
Look over the top of the holy screen to the concave wall
beyond, the portion just under the "drum" with the circles of
crosses and stars. The standard of a large cross is in your way,
but you can see pretty well in spite of it. Do you observe that
circle filled with a much-elaborated Greek cross and with a pair
of wing-like figures spreading horizontally from it, one on each
side? There is, besides, a little curly spiral, standing nearly
erect, one above each t( wing." This combination of a circle or
globe, two curves rising vertically and two wings spreading
horizontally is a mediaeval modification of a very ancient bit of
symbolic ornament. It comes to us from the Egyptian usage of
three or four thousand years ago. The circle in the middle used
to mean Creative Power. The curling scrolls on each side (they
were two asps in the ancient Egyptian carvings) stood for Dis-
tributive Power. The outspread wings meant Protective Power.
The Egyptians in Moses' time used to carve such symbols over
the doorways of their temples and their dwellings to invite or
to represent the protection of the manifold Divine Power that
they felt was overruling the universe. It was from a knowledge
of this Egyptian custom (knowledge gained through their own
204 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
captivity In Egypt), that the Hebrews derived their own figura-
tive expression about abiding " under the wings," that is, under
the Protective Power, of the Almighty. Indeed, it is indirectly
from the same old Egyptian ornament that our familiar nine-
teenth-century hymn takes its phraseology; for we learned the
figure of speech, in our turn, from the Old Testament writers :
" All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring ;
Cover my defenceless head
With the shadow of Thy wing;."
And here we come across a Russian translation of the same
idea, a translation not into words but into church decoration,
showing our common inheritance from the far-away past on the
shores of the far-away Nile!
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 205
ODESSA.
Moving on southward from Kief, we leave the older Russia
behind us. Odessa, on the shore of the Black Sea, is distinctly
new, hardly more than a hundred years old, in fact, and it is
essentially a commercial centre. Not given to grand religious
ceremonies like Holy Moscow, nor devoted to politics and court
fashions like St. Petersburg, it attracts a cosmopolitan variety
of people who make money in trade.
Not but what the site of the city is historic. Away back in
the days of Pericles who knows? perhaps in the days of Helen
of Troy there was a town of some sort at Odessa ; but its relics
have vanished. There is no traceable connection between the
Odessa of the classics and the Odessa of today. And then the
Turks took their turn at occupying the place with a fortress,
but that day passed also. By the treaty of Jassy in 1791, Turkey
ceded this region to Russia, and. local history "began all over
again. For Odessa we can have recourse only to our genera!
map of Russia.
92. Richelieu Street, Odessa.
It is not so much the fashion to canonize people as It used
to be; and, now we think of it, the first governor of Odessa,
Duke Richelieu, for whom this fine street was named, was an
emigrant from France and probably not a member of the orthodox
Greek Church; but if ever a provincial governor deserved to be
206 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
reckoned a saint, Duke Richelieu is the one. When he came
here in 1803, Alexander I was anxious to develop what was then
only a small and shabby town into something commercially effec-
tive. The Duke laid out these fine streets, built substantial
wharves and warehouses, enlarged trade by encouraging the
establishment of Greek and other merchants, in addition to the
Russians, and acted altogether with both discretion and enthu-
siasm in. the development of his adopted city, increasing its popu-
lation in eleven years from nine thousand to twenty-five thousand.
(Now it has 400,000.) This in itself is not so much of a marvel.
But it is a pretty well authenticated fact that when the Duke
decided, after Napoleon's downfall, to leave the then flourishing
town of Odessa and go back to his native land, he went quite
as poor as he had come, not a rouble of Odessa money having
clung to his fingers in the course of his administration. He took
with him no end of affectionate regard on the part of his fellow-
citzens, but his material baggage consisted of a single portmanteau
containing his uniform and two clean shirts !
The buildings here in Odessa are, you see, not especially
Russian in point of architecture. They are very much like build-
ings in Paris or Vienna or our own American cities. The streets
are well kept, and trees are planted with a generous hand. Most
of those which we see are acacias.
The people we meet in the streets are of all sorts and nation-
alities, but the dress of southern Europe seems to prevail. That
young man with the big, paper-covered bundle might be a towns-
man of our own. The very neckties and coat-collars begin to
have a familiar cut. Yes, we are almost on the outer threshold
of the Czar's country.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 207
At the farther end of the street is the entrance to Odessa's
great Opera House. It Is a much more extensive building than
any one would imagine standing here. If we pass down the
street, turn to our right for several blocks and look back at it
from an elevated position, its magnificence will be appreciated,
93. The Opera House, Odessa.
This is the pride of Odessa, its magnificent Opera House,
built only a few years ago (1887). These Russian cousins of
ours are devotedly fond of music and the drama ; they know what
good music is, too. The national Church does not allow the use
of organs, but the singing in Russian churches is proverbially
fine; the men take to song as naturally as ducks to water, and
those who have any part in formal religious services are given
excellent technical training, so in church at least even the poor-
est city-bred Rtissian hears good music, good of its kind. Whole
volumes have been written about the ballads and folk-songs of
the Russian peasantry; they are fond of music, too. There are
admirable operas by Russian composers which are exceedingly
popular, and music-loving citizens of any large town like Odessa
know, besides, much of the best work of the composers of other
countries.
The State government makes appropriations for the support
of the opera and drama in Russia ; there are government schools
for the training of actors, singers and dancers. Besides, they
have plenty of money to spend In a place like Odessa, for busi-
ness interests here are enormous, and wealth accumulates fast.
It has cost a pretty penny to build such a palace of music as
this dignified and magnificent pile, but Odessa is abundantly
208 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
able to pay the bills. She may be young, but her position as
one of the few first-rate seaports of the whole empire sends a
large part of the enormous agricultural wealth of the country
flowing through her hands.
It would be interesting to know whether those oddly laid-out
flower-beds just this side of the Opera House spell out some
Russian motto, or whether they are only decorative combinations
of curves, a fantasy in landscape gardening. They really look
from here like a bit of Russian hand-writing on an enormous
scale.
A singular contrast to the fanciful elaboration of the Moscow
churches is the Odessa Cathedral.
94. The Cathedral,wOdessa.
In the first place, most of the older churches were built in
the form of a Greek cross, with arms of equal length, while this
is in the form of a Latin cross, the dome rising over the junc-
tion of the nave (main body) and transepts (cross arms) . From
the architectural standpoint it is more suggestive of Byzantine
than Russian church building, for an old Byzantine custom was
to build in the inherited form of the still earlier Roman basilica,
the main body of the church holding its vaulted roof as here
higher than the roof of the side aisles, and lighting 1 the clear-
story or tipper part of the interior by means of windows placed
like these semicircular ones, up next to the eaves. But here the
Byzantine character of this particular exterior comes to an end;
for the round-arched windows below, clustered in threes, are
not any part of the old historic ideal; and that three-storied
bell-tower with its tapering spire seems to have nothing whatever
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 209
to do with the rest of the structure unless It Is to insistently
and rather brutally compete with the more dignified dome for
predominance in the general effect. The church really cannot
be said to be Impressive or beautiful as we see It from under
the locust trees in the big, open square. But the interior Is good
beyond the outside promise.
95. Interior of the Cathedral, Odessa.
Here we have an excellent chance to study architectural
construction, :f we are Interested in the growth of ideas In such
fields. We have all seen domes many a time, and most of us
taken them easily for granted. But there were centuries and
centuries of magnificent architectural construction before the
cleverest men knew how to construct supports on which to raise
a domical roof. In ancient Rome, as we know, they thought they
had done wonders when they built the Pantheon, surmounting a
cylindric wall with a domical top, and lighting it by a great
hole In the centre of the roof that let in rain as well. For cen-
turies more architects kept on supposing that only on a circular
(or nearly circular, perhaps eight-sided) wall could a dome be
firmly supported. Then the Greeks In Byzantium (Constan-
tinople) worked at the problem, and they found a way which
has been followed ever since. It was followed here. Look ahead
to where the comparatively dark, vaulted roof of the nave stands
out against the brilliantly light space just under the dome. At
the right and at the left of this opening we see a huge, cornice-
capped pier supporting the semicircular arch of the vaulting.
At the farther side of the light space we can see two correspond-
ing piers. These four, reinforced and buttressed by their relation
210 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
to the rest of the vaulted roof, support the dome; for, as we
see by looking at the painted frescoes yonder, the portions of the
church wall which rise from these corner piers, while they are
rising, spread out into concave triangular spaces (pendentives,
the architects call them), their tipper edges finally uniting in a
perfect circle. On this firmly braced circle rises a cylindric wall,
the "drum" of the dome, pierced by windows as we saw from
the outside (Stereograph 94), and on this drum rests the dome
itself, symbolic of the over-arching heavens.
It is very easy when one knows how to do it! But, since
men did not always know how to do it, we owe a great debt to
the Byzantine builders of fifteen hundred years ago, who made
their own experiments and taught their own conclusions to the
rest of the European world.
That ikonostasis, or altar screen, with its painted panels,
has a beautiful effect, closing our view from the nave and leav-
ing only a hint of mysterious, sacred spaces beyond.
96. The Great Staircase, Odessa,
One of the sights of Odessa is this staircase street that
extends from the harbor shore to the end of a fine boulevard
at the top of the hill. Seeing it, don't you involuntarily wonder
why such an idea is not oftener carried out? The very sim-
plicity of the design gives it a monumental character; the effect
is certainly dignified and majestic. It would be no small task
to climb all those stairs. Twenty steps in each flight, ten flights
to climb, we should be glad of the ten level landings for breath-
ing space before we reached the top of the hill.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 211
It is Duke Richelieu, the good governor who did his duty
like a gentleman and a soldier, and scorned to get rich by office-
holding, who stands there in bronze at the head of the stairs.
He is looking off over our heads to sea, where the Odessa steam-
ships continually come and go.
And it is a busy place down below us on the harbor level.
The trade is enormous. Something like three hundred million
dollars' worth of grain alone is a modest estimate of the amount
exported from Russia every year, the larger part of it being
handled at Odessa.
97. Wheat for Export, Odessa.
It is a curious experience to go about the wharves and these
adjoining streets, and see business in progress. Yonder are the
ships and steamers ready to carry Russian food-stuffs to all
parts of the world. England has been the largest buyer of Rus-
sian wheat, taking about a third of the whole exports, and a
great many of the vessels entering the harbor are naturally
English. The railway train over there, between us and the water,
looks like business too. But is not this square full of grain-bags
and meditative steers a strange compound of the commercial
and the pastoral? Those loads must be tremendously heavy.
No wonder the hard-worked beasts are glad to take their recess-
time lying down; but the effect suggests cattle-pieces in the
Hermitage picture galleries rather than the haste and bustle of
the docks to which we Americans are most accustomed.
The contents of these fat bags may have come from Little
Russia, the wide prairie region where we lingered to see the
peasant family by their log-house. There are rich grain lands
212 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
in those regions as well as in the Valley of the Volga, and
both men and women work at the harvesting. The grain has
come down the river in barges and freight steamers, and now
here it is, ready for shipment to feed other lands with less broad
fields.
Yes, Russia's present is great, and her future will be greater.
The rest of the world needs her golden grain. She needs shall
we say the rest of the world? But that would be to enter upon
a discussion of politics, which is quite another story.
One of the peculiarly interesting things to be seen in the
vicinity of Odessa is the making of salt. Did you ever see the
evaporation of sea-salt in process? Then this is your chance.
Out on the great marshes of Solinen, beside the Black Sea, some
twenty miles east of Odessa, there are acres on acres, indeed,
miles on miles of space devoted to the characteristic industry of
this region.
98. Overlooking the Extensive SaIt=FIeIds of Solfnen,
Russia.
Geologists tell us that all our deposits of rock-salt in dif-
ferent parts of the world are probably the result of the slow
evaporation and crystallization of pre-historic seas. Here at"
Solinen they merely hurry nature's processes a little, spreading
the sea- water out in thin layers that it may leave its salt treasure
on the earth when it departs skyward by invitation of sun and
wind. The level land is divided into sections by means of inter-
vening dikes, built up in much the same general way as that of
children's "play-houses," marked out in the dirt of a roadside
or a school-yard, its partition walls indicated by little scraped-up
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 213
ridges of earth or pebbles. The whole thing is laid out with the
exactness of an architect's ground-plan, as we should see if we
could get a bird's-eye view from a balloon. Here and there are
sluiceways leading from one section to another, which can be
opened or closed as desired, admitting the sea-water from this
canal at our feet, and allowing its passage from one section to
another, or keeping it confined, according to circumstances.
Several months are required for the complete evaporation of the
ordinary depth of water. The sun and the wind take their time
about it. But, in order to utilize the working force to the best
advantage and make the production fairly regular, different sec-
tions or reservoirs are flooded at successive intervals, so that
there are always some portions of the field ready for the har-
vesters.
Those tent -like masses over yonder ranged inside the great,
enclosing dike are stacks of glittering salt, extracted from sea-
water, just like the water of this canal at our feet. About twenty
thousand tons we see there now.
Come over now into one of the sections where the water has
been evaporated.
99. A Reservoir After Evaporation.
What, the salt- workers are women ? Yes, the greater number
are women, and a hard life they have, too. Do you see that crust
over the ground which the women are breaking up? That is the
salt. This section where we stand now has been entirely evap-
orated, and when these women began work the ground at their
feet was entirely covered with a three-inch crust of pinkish-gray
salt-deposit. The surface of the ground-crust was marked off
'. 14 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
into these squares, as boys might mark off a tennis-court on the
surface of a snow-covered field, and then the women began
carefully digging over each square in turn, taking off the crusty
salt with as little disturbance as possible of the underlying earth,
and hoeing the unclean mass into these separate mounds like
hay-cocks. See, the square at our right, where two women are
at work, is only partially uncovered. There we see a bit of the
tough crust yet unbroken.
The discoloration of the salt when first evaporated is due
partly to earthy matter and partly to animal matter ; but it purifies
itself gradually by standing a long time in the stacks.
These same women will later gather up their heaps of salt
in carts or barrows, and drag the loads away to the proper stack
for gradual bleaching. They are used literally like beasts of
burden, poor souls, pulling the heavy loads by means of bands
across their foreheads, as a horse pulls against a breast-band or
a collar. A man may walk behind to steady the load, but it is
the women who do the pulling! Over beyond those division-
walls you can see the stacks of another section. Yes, you can
make out even from here the sloping framework of the " run," up
which the heavy loads have to be pulled, one after another, to take
them to the top of the slowly growing pile.
For three years or thereabouts this .salt we see here will
remain in stack, slowly purifying. It will grow clearer and whiter
with time, and at last become sufficiently snowy to be sold and
shipped away. Meanwhile, other sections of the great " farm "
will have come into bearing, one after another, leaving new salt-
crusts to be picked to pieces and piled in heaps, to be dragged
away to the stacks, to wait and bleach into similar purity. It
goes on and on forever.
RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE. 215
A symbol of hospitality this salt becomes later, when time
and distance have had a chance to lend it poetic flavor and
glamor. You remember that gorgeously arrayed Lord Mayor
of St. Petersburg whom we saw at the Troitsky Bridge (Stereo-
graph 38) had only the day before ceremonially offered bread and
salt to the royal guests of the Czar as, a token of the national
welcome.
With us, the actual, material stuff is so cheap a commodity
that it is indeed a scathing estimate of a man's practicality to
declare that he is " not worth his salt." But if we ourselves had
to earn not only our salt but our bread too, working like these
heavy-faced women of Solinen, we should find our own economic
problems desperately intensified. Well, Russia must solve her
own problems. She is not quite ready for General Federations
of Women's Clubs. We probably have enough to do minding
our own affairs, personal and national, without undertaking to
lay out her course of procedure. The Lord and the Czar must
work it out together.
It is time for us to go. We have crossed the land of the
Slav from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and we come to the
shore whence we can look off to other worlds.
100. The Black Sea, from the Russian Coast.
There is something endlessly fascinating about this outlook
as we stand on the shore and gaze over the dancing waters. If
we could go " flying, flying south," beyond that distant horizon,
what should we find? Miles on miles of sea; then the ancient
lands of Asia Minor, where the heroes of the Iliad fought, with
2l6 RUSSIA THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE.
gods for and against them, and whence yEneas came to be the
founder of the Roman world and of western civilization. Then
we should cross the eastern end of the blue Mediterranean where
the merchants of Tyre and Sidon went on their voyages of busi-
ness and adventure a long time ago. And then, after all that,
we should come to the mysterious Nile Valley, lined with pyra-
mids and temples and tombs, the marvelous country whose be-
ginnings in human life and work go back so far into the vague,
hazy past that it makes us dizzy to think of them .
There is no end to our possible southward journey.
And how it does make one long for further travel ! If any-
thing could keep us here, it would be a winsome, dark-eyed girl
like this, sitting here on the rocks. She might be a Lorelei, sing-
ing to the sailors in that approaching boat and luring them to
a fearful doom ; but we will never believe it of her ! More likely
her mission is to save from rocks and shoals, by keeping the light
of a womanly heart shining out of honest eyes.
The fresh wind and the dancing waters are calling us. Don't
you hear them and feel them too? Even the faithful wife of
Ulysses could not make him content to stay always in the
chimney-corner, after he had tasted the joys of wandering over
the wide world. Will not that boat come in-shore to take us
away, far, far out to sea, beginning ever new journeys? We
know just what Ulysses meant:
4 Much have I seen and known, cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Yet all experience is an arch, wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades
Forever and forever while I move ..."
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actually traveling in the Holy Land." F. N. Peloubet, D.D., Editor of " Select
Notes " on the S. S. Lessons.
"By the use of the stereoscope these scenes are made living realities to an
extent that is positively startling to one who has traveled through the East."
Frank K. Sanders, Ph.D., Yale University.
" They are a marvel of realism ; they have taken me back to the Nile and
brought again under my eyes the very scenes I witnessed there as vividly as
when I watched them on the spot." J. Irving Manatt, Ph.D., LL.D., Brown
University.
" They are the best substitute for an actual visit to those lands that I have
ever seen." Archibald McCullagh, D.D., Worcester, Mass.
" I have seen nothing so realistic since my visit to the Orient." C. R.
Blackall, D.D., Editor of Periodicals, Baptist Publication Society.
"It gives me pleasure to declare that your stereoscopic views of Italy and
the Holy Land are the best I have ever seen. '"'Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia.
" The next best thing to visiting them (Rome, Jerusalem, etc.) is to have
them brought before the eye by very perfect stereoscopic views." Dr. Theo.
L. Cuyler.
" They afford the only means by which the many who cannot travel may
gain a real acquaintance with other lands and peoples." William Elder, A.M.,
Sc D., Colby University.
lt I have found these views * * * in particular to possess an educational
value of great importance to scholars, students, artists, professional men, and
indeed to the general public." John Clark Ridpath, LL.D., New York.
UN BER.WOOI> di UHBERWO O I*
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ST. PETERSBlffiG
1-36,200
1406 1800 g
' <t) The redt Itn* om this map mark out the territory shown In ths respective
to ;,Th* rwmfcwtss Itt otrols refter to stereographs oorrespondfriaiy ftumbered.
<<J) Tht 6pex, ( iC ! f or point from whio'h two lines branch out, Intiioste* th*
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ST. PETERSBURG.
List of Places on the Map*
1; Slaughter House.... FS ] 36.
2. Academy of Arts.. D5
3. CatholicTheological 37.
Academy D4
4. Orthodox Theologi-
cal Academy 17
5. Medical Academy... G3
6. Military Law School E6
7. Nicholas Academy, 05, 6 j 40.
8. Academy of Science E5 .
9. Administration of i 41.
Imperial Stud.... H5 ;
10. Address Office E7 j 42.
11. Grand Admiralty... Eo j
12. New Admiralty D6 j
13. Aquarium F3 i
14. Triumphal Arch of I 43.
Moscow F9 \
15. Narva Triumphal i
Arch...., C9 I 44.
16. Archives of the Em- j
pire F5 45.
17. Old Arsenal EF4
IS. New Arsenal H3 46.
19. Artillery Adminis-
tration.... G4 47.
20. State Bank F6
31. Imperial Library... G5 48.
22. Stock Exchange.... E5 !
23. Assay Office (Map II) F6
24. Arak tehee v Bar- 49.
racks 14 i
25. Artillery Barracks, 50.
1 Brigade... G5 51.
26. Artillery Barracks,
2 Brigade E7 53.
27. Horse Artillery Bar-
racks Ha 53.
28. Foot Artillery Bar-
racks G4 54.
29. Sharpshooters' Bar-
racks G7
30. Life Guard Barracks H4 55.
31. Cosak Guard Bar-
racks 17 56.
32. Body (Imperial)
Guard Barracks.. G4 57.
33. Horse Guard Bar- 58.
racks E6
34. Gendarme Barracks H5 59.
35. Grenadier Guard
Barracks F3 60.
Palace Guard Bar-
racks G4
Ismaelovsky Regl-
ment Bar racks.... E7
Marine Guard Bar-
racks E7
Finland Regiment
Barracks CO
Moscow Regiment
Barracks G2
Pavlo vsky Regiment
Barracks Fo
Preobrajensky Begri-
me n t Barracks
(1st Battalion)
Map II F5
Preobrajensky Regi-
ment Barracks,
other battalions. H5
Engineer Kegiment
Battalions H6 ,
Semenor Regiment ',
Battalions F7 j
Military Telegraph
Battalions H5 :
Local Troops Battal- !
ions F6 :
Commission for Am- i
ortisation of Pub- i
lie Debts (Map II) F6 ;
Alexander II. Cath- !
edral F5
Kazan Cathedral.... Fo
Cathedral of Resur- |
rection K4 i
Cathedral of Trans- I
figuration. G5 j
Cathedral of the i
Trinity (Izmailor) E7 i
Cathedral of the I
Trinity (St. Peters- i
burg quarters).... F4 |
Cathedral of St. |
Alexander Nevsky 17 i
Cathedral of St. An- !
drew D5 i
St. Isaac Cathedral.. E5 |
St. Nicholas Cathe- i
dral..... E7 i
Cathedral of St.
Peter and Paul... F4
St. Sergius Cathedral G4
61. St. Vladimir Cathe-
dral E4
02. Ministry of Finance
(Map II) E6
Chapter of the
Orders (Map II).. G4
63. Reservoir (Chateau
d'Eau) 14
64. Palace of Lithuania D6
65. Circus 5
66. Club of the Nobles. F5
67. House of the Town
Commandant G5
68. Conservatory ....... E6
89. Orthodox Consistory 10
70. Imperial Control .... E6
71. Cadet School, I E5
72. Cadet School, II.... D3
73. Cadet School Alex-
androvsky(MaplI) G5
Cadet School Nicho-
las (Map II) E6
74. School of Pages F6
75. Custom House 138
76. Old Custom House.. E4
77. School of Hospital
Nurses G3
78. Artillery (Micbai-
lovsky) School.... G4
79. Technical Artillery
School G4
80. Commercial School. G6
81. Artillery (Constan-
tinovskyj School.. F7
83. LawSchool G4
83. Riding School 65
84. School of Engineers. G5
85. Military (Pavlov-
sky) School D3
86. Naval School D5
87. Cavalry Officers'
School 14
88. School of Prince of
Oldenburg E8
89. Professional School I D5
90. Professional School
II G6
91. School for Deaf-
Mutes(MapII)... F6
93. Anglican Church... D6
93. Lutheran Christ
Church....... 57
94. Dutch Reform '
Church F5
95. German Reform
Church E6
96. French Reform
Church F5
97. Armenian Church
of Resurrection . . BC4
98. St. Anna Church... G4
99. St. Catherine Ar-
menian Church . . . F5
100. St. Catherine Cath-
olic Church D5
101. St. Catherine Luth-
eran Church D5
102. St. Mary Catholic
Church 113
103. St. Mary Finnish
Church F5
104. St. Mary Lutheran
Church E
105. St. John Lutheran
Church D6
106. St. Michael Luth-
eran Church D5
107. St. Peter and
Paul Lutheran
Church F5
108. Orthodox Church of
Annunciation . , . .DE6
109. Orthodox Church
of Apparition of
the Holy Virgin.. H6
110. Orthodox Church
of the Ascension . . F6
111. Orthodox Church
of the Assumption F6
112. Orthodox Church
of Boris and Gleb 16
113. Orthodox Church
of Cosma and De-
tnian H-;
114. Orthodox Church
of the Great Mar-
tyr Catherine D4
115. Orthodox Church of
the Exaltation of
the Holy Cross.... G7
116. Orthodox Church of
the Intercession of
the Holy Virgin of
Pokrov 1)7
117. Orthodox Church
of the Presenta-
tion E3
118. Orthodox Church
of the Resurrec-
tion D7
119. Orthodox Church
of the Transfig-
uration CDS
120. Orthodox Church
of the Transfig-
uration F2
131. Orthodox Church
of the Holy Trin-
ity B6
32. Orthodox Church
of St. Catherine. D7, 8
23. Orthodox Church
of the Holy Virgin H4
24. Orthodox Church
of the Holy Virgin
of Vladimir G6
25. Orthodox Church
of St. Demetrius. Ho
26. Orthodox Church
of St. Mathew.... E3
.27. Orthodox Church
of St. Nicholas Fl
S t . Panteleimon
(Map II)
128. Orthodox Church
of St. Sampson... G2
129. Orthodox Church
of St. Simeon and
St. Anna G5
Orthodox Church
Swedish (Map II). F5
130. Old Salt Storage... G5
131. Hermitage F5
132. Chief Military Staff
Building F5
133. Bank Note and Se-
curities Printing-
office D7
134. Baltic Railroad
Depot E8
135. Finland Railroad
Depot H3
136. Irinovka Railroad
Depot K4
137. Sestroretzk Rail-
road Depot DEI
138. Czarskoe-Selo Rail-
road Depot F7
139. Warsaw Railroad
Depot ES
140. Nicholas Railroad
Depot H6
141. Gostiny Dvor
(Bazar) F5, 6
142. House of the Gov-
ernor of the City E5
143. I Gymnasium. G6
II Gymnasium, F6
III Gymnasium,
IV Gymnasium.
V Gymnasium.
148. VI Gymnasium.FGG
149. VII Gymnasium.. 15
150. VIII Gymnasium.. D5
151. IX Gymnasium.. S3
152. X Gymnasium . . E7
153. Gymnasium of
Philanthropic
Society E7
154. Alexandrovsky
Gymnasium F6
155. Catherine Gymna-
sium E7
156. Mariinskaja Gym-
nasium 16
157. Peter Gymnasium. E3
158. Alexander Barrack
Hospital H6
159. Alexander Female
Hospital G5
160. Alexander Munici-
pal Hospital E7
161. German Hospital.. CDS
163. Insane (for) Hos-
pital G3
163. Lying-in (of Prince
of Oldenburg)
Hospital Ho
164. Obnkhov (of
Prince of Olden-
burg-) Hospital F7
165. Elizabeth (of Prince
of Oldenburg)
Hospital D7
166. Evangelic (of
Prince of Olden-
burg) Hospital.... Ho
167. Kalinkin (of Prince
of Oldenbur g)
Hospital..... CD7
168. Marine (of Prince
of Oldenburg)
Hospital D7
169. St. Mary Magdalen
(of Prince of Old-
enburg) Hospital. D4
170. Military (of Prince
of Oldenburg)
Hospital G3
171. Nicholas (of Prince
of Oldenburg)
Hospital F7
172. Ophthalmic ( o f
Prince of Olden-
burg) Hospital Go
173. Baronet Willie (of
Prince of Olden-
burg) Hospital. . . . G3
174. St. Olga (of Prince
Oldenburg) Hos-
pital 14
175. St. Peter and Paul
(of Prince of Old-
enburg) Hospital. F2
176. Foundlings 1 Asy-
lum F6
177. Asylum for Naval
Invalids (of Paul 1) El
178. City Hall (Dooma.. F5
179. Alexander Institute K4
180. Anatomical Insti-
tute H3
181. Catherine Institute G5
182. Institute of the
Maternity D7
183. Institute of the
Blind D7
184. Institute of Civil
Engineers 17
185. Institute of Mining
Engineers C6 1
386. Institute of Engi-
neers of Ways and
Communications.. F6
187.
188.
189.
190.
191.
192.
194.
195.
196.
197.
198.
199.
200.
201.
202.
203.
304.
205.
206.
207.
210.
211.
212.
213.
214.
215.
316.
17.
218.
219.
220.
221.
223.
224.
Elizabeth Institute Do
Foresters' Institute G-l
H istorico-Philolog- i-
cal Institute E5
Mariinsky Institute 15
Nicholas Orphan
Institute F5
Patriotic Institute T>5
Pavlovsky I n s t i -
tute Ho
Smolny Institute.. K4
Technological In-
stitute F7
Veterinary Insti-
tute GH3
Xervia Institute.. DEC
Military Commis-
ariat E6
Neroetti Garden.... D6
House of Detention 17
Hiding 1 School of
Guard Cavalry E5
Michailovsky Bid-
ing- School G5
Alexandrovsky
Market 16
Andreevsky Market D5
A p r a x i n Court
(door) F6
Cattle Market F8
Krougly (Kound)
Market Fo
Litovsky Market. .DE6
Miasnoi (meat)
Jamskoi Market. G6, 7
Nikolsky Market.. E7
Novo - Alexandrov-
sky Market E7
Poostoi (empty)
Market G4
Sennoi (hay) Mar-
ket......... F6
Sy tny Market E3
Ministry of War. . . E5
Ministry of Justice G5
Ministry of Public
Instruction F6
Ministry of the In-
terior Ft5
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs F5
Ministry of the Im-
perial Domain E6
Ministry of Finance F5
Ministry of Ways
and. Communica-
tions E7
Mint F4
Monument of Alex-
ander I.. F5
Monument of Alex-
ander I F3
226. Monument of Alex-
ander II E7
Monument of Bar-
clay de Tolli (Map
II). F5
227. Monument of Cato-
erinell F7
Monument of Cath-
erine II (Map II). 16
Monument of Jou-
kovsky(MaplIch.)E5
Monument of Go-
gol (Map II Go.)..
228. Monument of the
Turkish War E7
Monument of Kou-
tousov (Map II).. F5
229. Monument of Kru-
senstern..... D5
230. Monument of Kry-
lov G4
. Monument of Ler-
montor(MapII)L E5
231. Monument of Lom-
onosov (Map II). .. G6
Monument of Nich-
olas I (Map II).... E6
Monument, of Peter
the Great (Map 1 1)
E5, G5
Monument of
Peter, Prince of
Oldenburg (Map
II) G5
232. Monument of
Ponschkin H6
Monument of Pr/e-
valsky (Map II)
Pr E5
233. Monument of
Roumiantzov Do
Monument of Sou-
voroff (Map II) ... F4
234. Monument of Bar-
onet Wilie G3
235. Agricultural Mu-
seum G4
236. Museum of Alexan-
der III F5
237. Zoological Museum E5
238. Metereological Ob-
servatory C6
239. Palace of Alesei
Alexandrovitch .. D6
240. Anitchkov Palace. G6
241. Palace (marble) of
Const. Nicol.. F4
242. Palace of Kam-
menoi Ostrov.... El
243. Palace of Ekater-
inghof C8
244. Palace of Peter the
Great G4
245. House of Peter the
Great F4
246. Palace of Taurida.. T4
247. Winter Palace.,... EF5
248. House of the State
Council E6
249. Palace of Prince of
Oldenburg F4
250. Elagmsky Palace.. Cl
251. Palace of Michail
Michailovitch
(Map II) E5
252. Palace ot Michail
Nicolaevitch F4. 5
Palace, New, (Old
Musee)of Alex.III
Nicolai Nio. (Old
Instit. of Xenia) .BC3
253. Petrovsky Palace..
254. Palace of Sergei
Alexandrovitch... Fo
255. Palace of Vladimir
Alexandrovitch . . F5
256. Department of Po-
lice G5
257. Fire Brigade F3
258. General Post Office EG
259. Prison H4
260. House of Prelimin-
ary Detention.... G4
261. Military Prison.... H3
262. Secretaries for Fin-
land Office F.6
263. Catholic Seminary DEB
264. Orthodox Seminary 17
265. Senate E5
266. Free Economic So-
ciety F7
367. Holy Synod En
268. Synagogue D6
269. Telegraph E6
270. Alexander Theater G6
271. Kamenno-Ostrovsky -
Theater Dl
2 T2. Hermitage Theater F5
273. Marunsky Theater, EC
274. Michailovsky Thea-
ter Fo
Panaevslcy (Map II) E5
Lesser Theater
(Malyi) F6
Theatrical School
(Imperial Man-
agement of Thea-
ters) G6
1 277. Central Treasury.. G4
j Treasury (Map II). E6
I 278. District Court G4
279. Provincial Court... E6
280. University E5
281. Gas Works F8
\ *s^Z==^==^ff ft&Xr V v -- 1 - /& V^ -*= X*rt _rf - """ ~ _*?,
D IsmailovskyProsp. ^Conservatoire E
15' t j,TH"hn'^ 1 1 - one -cidd nuribfcr % p"-.c< d vnviiv ,t c -/i Js*- i
*7J VVhor 1 ': iris it^ d . ! v<i v/ In tr. stt - ,q%,' ntd .cent , hi?<ta;
y. v - S/STEM.
: * i ) which t*> vw was faxtn, viz., the o ! ac from wfich we Jcok Oiit i
i ^., 4^9 firsts o? ou? vi5cn c th ?Jpht and jie^t wh0rt IcokJrg at th
* to hftjp Socata dusckiy th sps
"" J * -^ S 'fl* run* to t-o ap^x to wnJcn ;x fttf^r*.
? i , .fjn-tjd by the umlsr of the sieraograurt in * eircte w ; ,thwt tht srancniitf
(2) 7 re r~.i i t , .IT r iu C 5 ^ov ... ^c
O PO k "Qfl
i he fcrasni q iinas
S o k o 1 ij i k /t
MOSCOW
* Britain. #***
Jin** n this map mark out th' tirtlt^ry shown in the reapotlv
to <lpo0rapi <*<5Fsponcifnely numbered
f^rp wh!6h 'two |n*. bnnoh out, Indicates th
; over Ahe WMto,ry between the two
of the
.
which the V|ew w.,, t*ft.*, vl.,
MOSCOW.
List of Places on the Map.
1. CommercialAcademyE4
2. Law Archives B6
45. Zaikonospasskij Con-
vent D4
84. Clynic Golitzynskaja C6
85. Mariinskaja .. D3
86. Military , G3
3. Foreign Ministry
Archives C4
4. Arsenal D4
46. Zatehaticvskij Con-
vent C5
47. Znamenskij Convent D4
48. Female (Alex.-Mar.)
School Co
87. Municipal Ct>
88. Pavlovskij.... 1)7
89. Preobrajen-
skn.in fil
5. Insane Asylum Gl, 2
6. Children Asylum.... D7
7. Pokrov Association
(hospital) G2
8. Stock Exchange. .. D4
9. Alexander Barracks D7
10. Cavalry Barracks.... C6
11. Gendarme Barracks D3
12. Kremlin Barracks.. D4
13. Khamovnitzy Bar-
racks , BC6
49. Commercial School. C5 90. Clynic Vladimir-
50. School of Arts E3 skafa f?a
51. Alexander Military
School C4
91. Hospital Aleaceiev-
skii "R7
S3. Nicholas (Fern.) 93. Hospital of" Catherine G i
School E4 ' 93. u f!iril Pfl
53. Normal School F3
94. " of Found-
lings E4
54. Technical School..,. F3
(See also Colleges, Institutes
and Lyceums.)
55. Church Armenian.. Ei
56. Church Arkhangel-
sky Cathedral D4
57. Church Annuncia-
tion D4
95. Hospital (branch).. F3
96. " for Workmen D3
97. " Kyrakinskij. E3
98. " Nabilkovskij. EJJ
99. " Preobrajen-
skil HI
14. KrootizkijaBarracksEF6
15. Pokrovskija Bar-
racks .... E4
16. Bed Barracks G4
17. Spasskija Barracks.. E3
18. Chamber of Finance C4
19. Chapel of Iberian
Virgin D4
100. City Hall D4
101. Institute Eiizabeth-
ian (fern ) F3
58. Church Kazanskzja. D4
59. " Assumption D4
*60. " ofSt.Yasilij D4
61. " of Ascension E4
63. " of Saviour. . C5
63. " Kef arm .... E4
64. " of St. Luke.
D3, 4
65. " of St. Michel F3
66. u of Nikita... F3
67. " of St. Peter
and Paul (cathj.. D3
68. Church Lutheran E4
69. Depot of Kursk-
Nijnij-Novgorod, EF4
70. Depot of Eiazan--.. E3
72. " of Smolensk. B3
73. " of Jaroslavl,E2,3
74. Nicolaevsky Depot.. E3
75. Gostinyj Dvor D4
76. Civil Government... C3
77. General Govern-
ment CD4
20. Club of the Nobles.. D4
21. College for Girls C3
23. Imperial College (3d) D4
33. Military Schools (1st
and2d) G4
103. Institute Konst'an-
tinovskij F3
103. Institute Lazarev-
skij D4
104. Institution (fern.)
Alexeie v CD2
24. Military School (4th) G4
25. Old Commissariat... E5
26. New Commissariat. . E5
27. Guardians Council.. E4
28. Ecclesiastical Con-
sistory .. D4
105. Institution (fern.)
of Catherine D2
106. Ivan the Great D4
107. Botanical Garden.. DE3
100. Zoological Garden. B3
110. Kolymajnyj Dvor.. Co
111. Lobnoe Place D4
29. Alexeievsky Convent F2
30. Andronovsky " F4
31. Danilovsky " D7
32. Donskoi u C7
33. New Convent of
Savior E6
113. Lyceum of the
Czarewitcb NC5
113. Provision Store.... C5
114. House of Detention E3
115. House of Roman-
offs D4
34. St. Nicholas Greek
Convent .. . D4
35. Ivanovsky Convent. E4
36. Novo-Devitchij " A6
37. Pokrovsky u F5
38, Kojdestvenskij " D3
39. Simonovskij ; E7
40. Sretensktj 4 D3
41. Strastnoj l C3
43. Tcaoodov * D4
43. Vosnessenskij ' D4
44. Vyssoko-Petrovskij
Convent.... D3
116. Widow House B4
117. City Eiding Acad-
emy D4
78. Office of Imperial
Stud. % C4
118. Monument of Mlnin B4
119. Monument of
Pouslikin C3
79. Clynic of Catherine. D3
80. *" Scheremetiev-
skaja DE3
120. Museum of Indus-
trial Arts DO
81. Clinic University.... B6
82. '* Ophthalmic.. . C3
83. u Children...... C4
121. Museum Historical. D4
132. Museum Polytech-
nical D4
123. Museum Roumian-
tzovskij C4
124. Observatory B4
125. Palace Alexandrov G6
126. " Kremlin.... D4
1ST. " G-ranovitaja
Palata D4
138. Palace Lefortov-
skij FG3
129. Palace Nicolaev-
skij D4
130. Department of
Police C4
131. Fire Department... C5
132. Red Gates B3
133. General Post Office B3
134. Powder Magazine..
EFO, 7
135. Central Prison 02
136. Military Prison . . . G4
137. Seminary OD3
138. Senate D4
139. Philanthropic So-
ciety DB4
140. Deaf -Mates Asylum C7
141. Synod D4
143. Synodal Printing
Establishment..., D4
143. Telegraph Central
Office E3
144. Grand Theater D4
145. Lesser Theater. D4
140. Theatrical School.. D4
147. Soukharevskaja
Tower D3
148. University D4
149. University Printing-
office D3
150. Villa of Mamontov B7
151. Zapasry Dvor B3
152. Church of the Na-
tivity B4
For references to the Plans of Moscow in the text, concerning the central part of the city*
consult Plan II.
NIJNI NOVGOROD
Verste d 500 Sajenes=^^7^
o apo iqoi> 20,00 3000 w t
Svfrik'/nAii', j/i ~'^-~-_ SP*
l.ArseD|T (Kremlin) F 2
2. Stock/Exchange D 3
3. Aleseievskala Chapel D 3.4
Chapel E 2
osdvijensUia. < C 4
16. Spasso-Preoljirajens.ky Cathedral E 2
17. Catholic Church E 3
18. Iljinskaia Church D 3
19. Ivanovskaia Church E 3
20. KoMnodemianskala Church D 3
21. Mironossitakaia Church E 3
32. NJkolakaia Church D 4
23. NIkolafcala Church E 3
24. Bojdeatvenakala Church D 8'
25. St Georges Church P 3
20. Troltsksia Church D 3
27. Yerkhne - Possadskala Church, G 2
Vanrarakaia Church F
, Gorcrnmeat (Kremlin)
fcaia Chapel E 2
aterBal.(Cha d'Eau)F2
0. College (Oynuiwium) E F 2
10. Blagovestechensky Con. 4
11. Krescovosdvijensky COTX. D 6
12. Alexeievskaia Church E 3
18. Michael Cathedral E 2
14. Blagovestachensky E 3
15. Onspensky CathedraI.ES
44, <Sarf ncbMot B 4
46. Pwate MMMMMMtt A S
i:, Armeate Qhwteh A 4
47. C SOirtea A &. B S, B 4
li. Iran B 4, B &
i&. Fern B 8
35.. Atenadw X.r--ky Catetol C
*!rCiJ*k*teaA3
of to Eaaitadoa of tfa
5L J&KWSSB Sam! A B 8
1 (Sowte ftosa BtAtwra B S
fterstaa gwis B
iCMS OF
It' The red Sines on this mar/ Tark cut ths ten-stor*? -,hr!w^ -r. IT-? "^s^^ct ,-e &ti?"c?,3 ?>.** oh p,,
(2 1 THa numbers <r csrc'os r^Ter tr 1 nterecqrao^s ^Qrr"ss3crtchn.T|iy nj y^ 1 : 'C"i,
'3i T K ^t apex ' <C^ ' , s~ cc ; nt ^rom wh?ch two 'ins 5 ? brsncn out, tnri.oat^'t tf<* s>'sin*!i f^on* yvftici 4 *. t**'j vfiw was ta>R, v2,thw plac* ffC'm wh'Oh w* look out*
irt th ster'^ogpaph, c/er th? t'Sfffto^w bfttwe*srs th*j two iir*s,
'4 1 Th^ branching JJnes ', ^^7 '' 'ndJoat 1 ? the li^nits of *rt starscg "attests sus^pe* /:*., Ha ^<m's of our y/>,icr *n t"*e "-^ftt a^tt M*t 'Ahftyi IftoJeing at tttf
sieraograph. ^****'''-
'5) The stereograph number without a circle Is frequently placed j*t th-s nri af ao*i branching *'Sn 'amo!eQ^<Cr^ * to f^a locats quick^ th
shown In a stereograph, 12
(0^ Sometimes the encircled number is placed wb*re it can be seen btto- a^5 a *sg*g U runs to th* aoex to whlGf* Jt ,ff*r%,
.7^ Where the field of view in the stereogrnphed scene Is limited. Its location la designated by trie mfe*r of tit* in a olreit wttfeiot fcwflifthiwg
Unas,
f-J^lii s l/iV '/T i" ^itrtwitrict.
OF MAP SYSTEM-
is refer 1
'4 The
> ( "
o tha iirrKa o* tht t*,t'0jfab s^a, tfis,, 1h(| !Wt Sf ftei 1 tcttlJO u
qutoltiy tfce paCe arlo#rt lit * stereograph.
(6) Sometimes the snofroleci numbes- to placed *here ft *en k H*I
(?5 Where the flsW of v)w ! the ti
t f^.* 'ffp ft
son is ttmiWf, HaioartKu) jijf # w*Wf ftf.fcf <sri**5((>tiJ<li('i*l(
'
KIEF.
List of Places on the Map*
1. Theological Academy.
2. Chapel of St. George.
3. Girls' College.
4. Clmrch of the Presentation.
5. Church of the Resurrection of Christ.
6. Samson's Fountain.
7. Great Bazaar.
8. Hotel of the Nobility .
9. House of Contracts.
10. Monument to Khmelnitzki.
11. Palace Terestchenks.
12. Hotel Levachev.
13. Seminary.
ICansaa fflttg
pthltr
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